Penn GSE and the Milken Family Foundation Select 2012 Education Business Plan Competition Winners

June 20, 2012 - The University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) and the Milken Family Foundation have announced the winners of the 2012 Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) – with six winners earning a total of $120,000 in prize funding. The competition is designed to stimulate cutting-edge ideas that serve the world’s educational needs, from Pre-K to adult learning.

Of over 200 submissions, ten worldwide finalists were selected to gather in Philadelphia to compete in a live competition judged by a panel of industry leaders.

Winners:

  • The Milken Family Foundation:
    • First Prize ($25,000) -- Toni Maraviglia (Nairobi, Kenya/registered as U.S. corporation): M-Prep Inc. creates educational materials that can be delivered through ubiquitous mobile devices, and targets populations that have little access to education.
    • Second Prize ($15,000) -- Jason W. Young and Tracy T. Moore II (Oakland, CA): Mindblown Labs uses mobile gaming to teach high school and college students about personal finance and other 21st century skills.
  • The American Public University System Prize for Innovation in Online Education ($25,000) -- Saad Alam and Lee Jokl (New York, NY): Citelighter is a research platform aimed at storing, organizing and sharing education and research for free.
  • The Educational Services of America Prize for Innovation in the fields of Special Education and At-Risk Students ($20,000) -- Megan Marcus, Katerina Manoff, and Bianca Figueroa Santana (Cambridge, MA): FuelEd is aimed at strengthening teacher preparation by equipping teachers with essential social and emotional competencies.
  • The Erudient Education Prize for Innovation in Borderless Education ($10,000) -- Shay Eyal (Kiriat Bialik, Israel): EyalGPS provides a unique Text To Speech mobile application for the special needs population that reads any text on a mobile screen.
  • The Startl Prize for Open Educational Resources ($25,000) -- Saad Alam and Lee Jokl (New York, NY): Citelighter