Innovation in Action: Volume 8
The Future Is Now: Students + Skills + the Tech to Get There
The 2025 Yass Prize Application is now officially closed! Stay tuned in early October when we will announce the newest cohort of inspiring education innovators.
Since its founding, the Yass Prize and STOP Awards Initiative have awarded over $50 million to more than 200 education innovators across sectors and approaches. Each year, the Yass Prize identifies STOP-enabled organizations to join a prestigious business accelerator. The 2025 cohort will convene at Academica’s Mater Brickell Academy in November, culminating in the winner’s announcement at CER’s Power of Innovation Summit this December.
A New Recipe for Impact: Stemuli Empowers Cafe Momentum Interns
Approximately 36,500 youth under age 18 are detained in juvenile facilities on any given day. Microschool network Cafe Momentum (2024 Semifinalist) directly impacts the future for these kids, creating opportunities for justice-involved youth in the restaurant industry through a blend of academic education with hands-on training. Recently, founder Chad Houser teamed up with CEO and founder of Stemuli (2021 Finalist) Taylor Shead to create an AI-native game engine for learning to create a special interactive exercise for their restaurant student interns.
Over four immersive co-design sessions held on Saturdays, these interns didn’t just learn about career pathways, they helped shape them. From mapping user journeys to prototyping new ideas, each session built on the last. What made this experience even more impactful was its blend of in-person collaboration and digital community. After the first two sessions, interns joined Stemuli’s “League” on Discord, where they connected with peers from across the country who shared their interests, often for the first time. This partnership shows what’s possible when students are treated not just as learners, but as designers and changemakers in the process!
Co-Designing the Future: Victory XR and Cristo Rey Students Building a National Model
Imagine a student’s experience in a typical physics course with demanding lectures, an excessive workload, and high-stakes exams. Now picture the student having access to a high-quality 24/7 tutor available to answer any question. That’s exactly what a Harvard study explored last fall, finding that students learned significantly more, potentially twice as much. With this data, CEO Steve Grubbs of VictoryXR (2023 Semifinalist), an immersive learning platform leveraging virtual and augmented reality, is partnering with Cristo Rey (2023 Finalist), a national network of career-focused high schools, to create a national model for how AI can enhance both academic learning and career readiness.
Grubbs highlights the direct connection to Cristo Rey’s Corporate Work Study Program as one of the most exciting elements of this collaboration. Students can build personalized AI tutor experiences or tap into a growing library of content without needing to code. This partnership is built on a powerful, symbiotic exchange: Victory XR provides Cristo Rey schools with significantly discounted access to their platform, while Cristo Rey helps guide Victory XR in shaping best practices for implementing AI in ways that are practical, mission-driven, and deeply impactful.
Grubbs speaks bolder to the impact of this partnership and shares,
“By working together, we’re co-creating a national model that demonstrates how AI can elevate both academic learning and workforce preparation. This is more than a technology rollout. It is a shared effort to reimagine what learning and workforce readiness can look like for students who deserve every opportunity to thrive.”
Career + Tech Education Triple Threat: Mike Felton, Mike Marrone and Mike Gonzalez
In last month’s Learning Can Wait episode, a podcast by Full Mind, these three Yass Prize alumni hailing from different states, communities and sectors, shared how they bridge education and economic development while revitalizing their hometowns.
🔨 Superintendent of Rural Public School District in Maine: Mike Felton of St. George MSU (2023 Finalist)
🔨 Founder + CEO of Private CTE High School in Philadelphia: Mike Marrone of Liguori Academy (2024 Finalist)
🔨 Executive Director of Public-Private Partnership in Texas: Mike Gonzalez of Rural Schools Innovation Zone (2024 Finalist)
Congratulations!
…to Shaun Luehring of LUMIN Schools (2023 Semifinalist) and Patrick Landry of Notre Dame School of Milwaukee (2024 Semifinalist) for being selected as finalists by their regional media company, BizTimes, in their 12th annual Nonprofit Excellence Awards Program. Recognizing the top nonprofit organizations and leaders working to improve the quality of life in southeastern Wisconsin, Shaun was awarded under the category of Innovation in Education and Patrick as Nonprofit Executive of the Year!
ICYMI: Yass Prize Alumni, Partners, and Guests Gather at the White House!
In celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the recognition by the U.S. Supreme Court of the right of parents, not the state, to control the education of their youth, more than 40 alumni, special guests, and partners traveled to Washington DC for a tour of the White House.
Pierce v. Society of Sisters was a groundbreaking decision that overturned an Oregon law forbidding parents to send their children to private and religious schools and mandating their public school attendance. It was also a warning shot to the rest of the nation not to create laws managing children.
STOP for Education is an initiative focused on developing and expanding the transformational impact of Yass Prize awardees and partners who are dedicated to the four core STOP principles - Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless education. This new publication, Innovation in Action, will feature the latest from best-in-class education providers.
Follow along STOP for Education on X @edreform. Learn more about STOP for Education and CER’s initiatives here.