At the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Detroit, Forbes announced from the stage the STOP Award, a new $1 million prize open to education innovators, providers and entrepreneurs who continued to support underserved families during COVID-19 and who seek to expand their work in the coming year.

Administered by the Center for Education Reform and supported by my philanthropy, the STOP Award is a $1 million prize to an individual or group who is providing an educational experience that is Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding and Permission-less.

There are varying definitions of what it means for education to be transformed. The best education providers - schools, technologists, or even non-traditional groups -  believe that new approaches, technologies and ways of learning that bring education into the 21st century are a critical link to taking students from bottom quartiles in almost every subject to where they are thriving.

Take G-Star School of the Arts, for example. The entire school is different from any traditional model.  Along with a traditional curriculum, G-Star exposes students to all of the arts and let’s them decide the path they want to pursue. Located in what once was and continues to be one of the largest movie studios in the country, multi-million dollar productions take place while students learn on the set the variety of skills, occupations and learning needed to pursue a career in related fields. Students can change their focus and their programs until they find their passion. Along with Advanced Place courses, the International Baccalaureate, digital animation, coding or set building, there are high expectations for students to learn core academics while giving them breadth to spend their time collaborating on passion projects.

When I visited, I listened to a young lady recite a dramatic scene in her acting class.  Being taught by industry veterans that transform these young minds, these dedicated educators take it one step further by giving them access to the very entertainment sector in which they want to succeed and develop their craft.  What was once “just” a movie studio is now a school.

Read the full article about education innovation by Janine Yass at Forbes.