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| Catalyst

St. Petersburg FL News Spotlights Sail Future as Most Innovative

By Mark Parker |
  • December 19, 2022

Innovative St. Pete high school wins $500,000

Sail Future Academy, a local nonprofit private school that teaches disadvantaged teens life skills, has won a prestigious national prize for its unique education model.

Officials with the tuition-free, career preparatory high school recently announced that the Yass Foundation for Education named Sail Future one of the nation’s most innovative and effective education providers. The foundation is part of the Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C., and the St. Petersburg academy won the “Sustainable” category for its student-led enterprise model.

Over 2,700 organizations from 48 states entered the competition. The foundation awarded eight winners with $500,000, two from four categories: Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding and Permissionless Education (STOP).

Mike Long, founder and CEO of Sail Future, told the Catalyst that receiving national recognition in the first 18 months of operation is a “crazy” feeling.

“We got to spend a week with all the other semifinalists in Miami, and these are some of the brightest minds in education,” said Long. “Like, they’re doing some really cool and innovative stuff. So, we learned a lot from these folks and just kind of pinched ourselves that we were one of the eight winners – because the quality of people there is just incredible.”

From left: Janine and Jeff Yass, founders of the Yass Foundation for Education, and Mike Long, founder and CEO of Sail Future.

Sail Future opened its first residential home for teens in foster care in 2016. A key aspect of the unique program is taking the kids sailing for half the year to help educate them and build relationships.

However, building a brick-and-mortar school based on the same philosophies was always a priority. The organization bought the historic Norwood School at 2154 27th Ave. N. in December 2019. Students have led remodeling efforts on the 99-year-old facility ever since.

The St. Petersburg community has realized the value of Sail Future’s hands-on, business-focused academic model. Long said there is currently a bottleneck of families languishing on an enrollment waitlist, and a significant portion of the prize money will go towards hiring additional faculty to accommodate more students.

Long said Sail Future currently serves about 60 kids, and the $500,000 will help them educate around 200.

“We went from sort of knocking on doors in the middle of Covid, wondering if anybody was going to sign up to come to school, to having to cap how many students we could take,” said Long. “So, it’s been a pretty wild 18 months.”

Taking kids sailing around the world is just one of Sail Future’s unique aspects. Long believes the Yass Foundation, named after founders Janine and Jeff Yass, was intrigued by the academy’s self-sustaining social enterprises. Students complete paid internships and apprenticeships through school-owned businesses.

He explained that the revenue generated from those enterprises funds scholarships for those same kids to attend the private school. Preparing kids for the “real world” is a core tenet of Sail Future, Long added, and leadership decided the best way to accomplish that goal is by starting businesses and employing students.

“And I have some businesses that are profitable and make some net income,” he said. “That way, we can offset the cost of providing a free education to kids and families that need it the most.”

Sail Future students Larry (left), Miranda (center) and Aleah participate in a project management workshop.

Long believes that Yass Foundation officials looked to award effective, self-sustaining academic models that other institutions can replicate rather than a “one-off cool idea.” He relayed that their ultimate goal is transforming educational practices nationally.

He said a common thread among the eight winners was how they could scale and implement unique ideas in other districts.

Here in St. Petersburg, Long said the initial construction and remodeling of the former Norwood School is nearly complete. Sail Future’s two social enterprises comprise home and maritime repairs, and he noted that students completed most of the work on their new facility.

He explained that the kids built the classrooms they learn from, laid the floors they walk on and planted the grass where they play football at lunch and after school.

“So, there’s a great deal of ownership that the students have,” said Long. “It just makes for a really neat experience for everybody.”

In addition to the school, Sail Future still operates two residential homes. Long said a mental health division provides psychiatric care and therapy for students.

Sailing remains an integral programming aspect, and school leadership takes kids to Nova Scotia during the summer and around the Virgin Islands in the winter. Long said he hopes to start a culinary social enterprise soon, and is raising funding to build a commercial kitchen and event space.

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The Yass Foundation advances the four core STOP principles: Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless education. Each year, the Foundation will reward dozens of organizations, building a growing network of innovative providers that
demonstrate these qualities in their commitment to new ideas, technologies, and approaches to learning that bring education into
the 21st century. The Foundation is powered by the Center for Education Reform (CER) in partnership with Forbes.

Entrepreneurs are people who teach us about needs we don’t know we need.

This is the fundamental basis of what we are doing.

Carl Schramm
University Professor,
Syracuse University

We realized long ago that there’s a lot of money in the system, and it’s just not directed to the children.

Janine Yass
Founder,
The Yass Prize

We may not agree on much of anything, but one thing that is a uniting force that we all agree on is that education opens doors, it’s the great equalizer.

Alyssa Farah Griffin
Co-Host on The View and CNN Political Commentator,

Unfortunately, the bureaucracy that’s behind the school system is more interested in perpetuating jobs and keeping the system in place, rather than giving children the freedom they deserve.

Janine Yass
Founder,
The Yass Prize

I am still processing the magnitude of this experience and so grateful for meeting each and everyone of you.

I look forward to continuing our transformative work in our communities and together.

Taylor Shead
Board Member,
Dallas Education Foundation

What has been created here at the accelerator is truly incredible.

We may never know how pivotal this really is for education in America right here, right now. This group of people will work together to force real change permissionlessly.

Rob Blevins
Executive Director,
Discovery Center of Springfield

When you are trying to advance and think beyond the status quo, this can be a lonely place, because our systems are structured to do the same thing.

It is important to surround yourself with like-minded individuals who foster innovation.

Phyllis Lockett
CEO,
LEAP Innovations

The pandemic didn’t stop our families, scholars and educators from learning, growing and thriving.

Patricia Brantley
CEO,
Friendship Public Charter School

I'm deeply humbled and grateful to be part of this group.

The last month has been a tremendous experience and I'm so inspired and motivated by the amazing work this group is doing. Collectively, we’re working towards a real-world goal and it’s leaving me empowered and motivated to apply what we learn.

Jeffrey Imrich
Co-Founder,
Rock by Rock

If you get to the accelerator after the application process, go in knowing you already won.

The fact that you are now with a group of your peers you really get to see how world class the education profession is.

Christopher Simmonds
Principal,
CARE Elementary School

We see the Pulitzer prizes, we see the MacArthur Genius Grants, we see the Pritzker prize for architecture.

But for the one field that drives everything, education, there is no definitive prize. The Yass Prize has filled that vacuum -- it's more than just the money. It's about spurring ideas, it's about spurring innovation. We are very very proud to be a part of it.

Randall Lane
Editor,
Forbes

The real source of wealth in society is the human mind, not material things, because with the human mind, great wealth can be created.

Steve Forbes
Editor-in-Chief,
Forbes Media

I hope you all think about the fact that the impact you are having, you will never even know how widespread it is.

That’s the beauty of education, you impact lives in such a deep way.

Alyssa Farah Griffin
Co-Host on The View and CNN Political Commentator,

We often jump to the what, without thinking with the community about the why.

Michael B. Horn
Author,
From Reopen to Reinvent

You are in a moment in history that we have never seen before.

Any of us with a disruptive idea have a shot at trying to prove something.

Randall Lane
Chief Content Officer,
Forbes Media

What is good for families is good for the school because families want great schools.

Ceci Schickel
Senior Director of Organizing and Advocacy,
Mastery Charter School

Remember, you are doing the work of civilization.

You are planting the seeds of a better world, despite any bad news, you’re doing great things.

Steve Forbes
Editor-in-Chief,
Forbes Media

The fact that education has become partisan is upsetting, and I just hope that this award will encourage more states to view this as a bipartisan issue.

Janine Yass
Founder,
The Yass Prize

Success happens after many pivots and changes.

Michael Moe
Founder and CEO,
Global Silicon Valley

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