Boston, MA (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has announced the winners of its 2024 Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge. Now in its fifth year, the Challenge recognizes and awards promising new ideas and strategic approaches that have the potential to transform early education.
On October 29, 2024, 10 finalists pitched their ideas to a panel of judges and a live audience. First, second, and audience choice winners were selected in two tracks: the Envision track, for those who have an idea and are seeking to try it out in the real world, and the Accelerate track, for those who have already tried out their idea and are seeking to evaluate it, refine it, and/or expand its reach. The winners received cash prizes of up to $15,000.
The winning teams are:
Accelerate Track
First Place: Childcare Business Incubator Expansion (YWCA New Britain) — A child care center that serves as an incubator for family child care entrepreneurs to learn the skills needed to run and sustain their own programs (Connecticut).
Second Place: Alliance CREDIBLE (Early Learning Ventures) — A software application designed to cut down on administrative barriers to help early educators receive federal reimbursement for nutritious meals through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (Colorado).
Audience Choice: Teacher Housing Initiative (Friends Center for Children) — A program that offers eligible early educators free housing as a salaried benefit to increase teacher compensation and support a pathway to financial security (Connecticut).
Envision Track
First Place: NEST Parent CDA Program (Educators for Quality Alternatives) — A Child Development Associate certificate program for high school students to study and intern at an on-campus early childhood program that serves teenage parents, earning their certification before their graduation (Louisiana).
Second Place: AR Choice Tri-Share (Joyfully Engaged Learning) — A cost-sharing model that splits the costs of high-quality early childhood care evenly among employees, employers, and Joyfully Engaged Learning, a nonprofit that supports early learning programs (Arkansas).
Audience Choice: Immersive Experiential Major Concentration (Appalachian State University) — A bachelor’s degree program with a concentration in child development, which places students in a high-quality early childhood education lab school to gain hands-on teaching experience (North Carolina).
“All the finalists impressed us with their hard work, brilliant ideas, and commitment to strengthening early education,” said Nonie Lesaux, co-director of the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Co-director Stephanie Jones added, “There’s palpable excitement in the field of early education right now, and this year’s Innovation Challenge showed us the kind of strategic, entrepreneurial thinking that can transform our understanding of what’s possible.”
The judges included: Junlei Li, Saul Zaentz Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education and co-chair of the Human Development and Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Maria Gonzalez Moeller, Vice-Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care and CEO of the Community Group; Casey Peeks, Senior Director for Early Childhood Policy at the Center for American Progress and a Zaentz Fellowship alum; Laura Perille, CEO of Nurtury Early Education; and Daniel Wilson, a Principal Investigator at Project Zero and Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
For more information on the Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge, please visit https://zaentz.gse.harvard.edu/innovation-challenge/.
To watch the recorded livestream, please visit https://harvard.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=815c4a4b-e30d-48e6-8a4c-b1f100cf0536.
About The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative
The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) promotes the knowledge, professional learning, and collective action necessary to cultivate optimal early learning environments and experiences. The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative is supported by a $35.5 million gift from the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation, one of the largest gifts ever given to a university for advancing early childhood education.
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