When the idea of a free-market founder award at the Lab was suggested, I was thrilled. This award is specifically designed to honor education entrepreneurs using the core principles of the free market to design, build, and grow their own learning spaces. Exciting and necessary! I know from firsthand experience as an education entrepreneur how important recognition, funding, and community are, especially when you’re just starting out.
My excitement continued to grow as the applications started rolling in—over 100 of them! After months of sharing the opportunity on social media, combing through applications, careful consideration, and lots of deliberation, we selected the first three awardees. It was powerful to read every application and see the impact that this award program had on so many, even for those who didn’t win. Yet, I had no idea how much impact this award program would create in just its first year.
It’s been a full year since those first awardees were honored publicly, and as we open up the new award cycle, I decided to check back in with our 2024 winners to see how being recognized as an Enterprising Founder has supported their endeavors.
Jessica and Victoria’s Update
Jessica Slayback and Victoria Forsman are the co-founders of REALM, an innovative private learning program geared towards homeschooling families based in Santa Monica, California. “REALM was built entirely through entrepreneurial vision and market responsiveness. Every class, program, and initiative has been shaped by the choices of our families and teachers,” Jessica says.
Jessica and Victoria were the first-place winners of last year’s Enterprising Founder Award, receiving a $5,000 grant and tons of digital publicity. When they first heard about the award, it was the mission behind it that drew them to apply. “We saw the award as an opportunity to connect with like-minded innovators who believe that education thrives when it’s driven by creativity, autonomy, and community rather than bureaucracy.”
Jessica added, “Winning the FEE Enterprising Founder Award was both a celebration and a turning point. It reaffirmed that the work we’ve poured into REALM for over a decade is part of a broader movement reshaping education.” And, a year after winning, that vision has only grown! The grant allowed them to expand their technological infrastructure and prepare their programs for expansion, while also piloting a program that will teach educators how to use REALM’s pedagogical methods in their own classrooms. They hope eventually to create a certification program for founders. “Most importantly, the funding amplified our confidence and visibility and served as both seed capital and validation to attract additional support from our growing network of families, educators, and partners.”
Mercedes’s Update
Mercedes Grant is the founder of Path of Life Learning, a microschool in Yorktown, Virginia. She started her microschool so that she “could offer children a joyful place to learn.” Mercedes says that while Path of Life Learning values high-quality academic experiences, “we also recognize that children need to be equally exposed to a variety of non-academic learning experiences.” This is something that the traditional school system did not encourage, Mercedes says, “especially among students with exceptionalities.”
Mercedes was a runner-up last year, receiving an Enterprising Founder title and a $2,500 grant. When asked how winning the award last year has changed things for her, Mercedes says that she has nearly doubled enrollment, added new staff members, and even expanded the enrichment program to offer more than a dozen different course options per quarter. Most excitingly, Mercedes shared with me that she is now also a contender for one of the nation’s most prestigious school choice awards, the $1 million Yass Prize!
“The future of education is changing at a rapid pace,” Mercedes says. “[The Enterprising Founder Award] recognizes people that not only encourage but act courageously to maintain this momentum toward education freedom in a free market.”
Coi’s Update
Coi Morefield is the founder of The Lab School of Memphis. “I started The Lab School of Memphis because I was a parent searching for something that didn’t exist. I have twice-exceptional twins, and I was looking for an environment that would truly see them. Not just their gifts in isolation, but the whole, complex, brilliant kids they are.”
When Coi first learned about the Enterprising Founder Award, she says, “I felt this surge of hope. I saw it as an opportunity to bring more attention to innovative models like ours. Not just for recognition’s sake, but because visibility matters.” Coi was selected as another runner-up for the award, also receiving a $2,500 grant. She felt extremely honored to receive the recognition the award provided, and the funding allowed her to continue growing her brand.
The funding allowed Coi to invest in the infrastructure, systems, and resources needed to streamline operations and invest in families. “When we support communities to design education that reflects their values and needs, we’re not just changing schools; we’re changing trajectories, legacies.” Moreover, the award propelled her vision forward, and since then, she has been partnering with public charter schools and other private schools to share learning tools and pedagogy. “We’re having these incredible conversations about what learner-centered education can look like at scale, and how we can support all learners within different educational structures. That ripple effect is exactly what I hoped for.”
How the Enterprising Founder Award Is Setting a Trend
“The biggest challenge is that traditional funding models don’t always align with what we need most,” Coi says. “Edupreneurs need resources to build systems that streamline operations, save time, and improve the customer experience, but those things require upfront investment before you see the return. It’s hard to get capital for infrastructure when funders want to see immediate programmatic impact.” Awards like the Enterprising Founder Award, Coi says, give education entrepreneurs “the runway to build something that lasts…”
Each awardee shared how this recognition has inspired them to keep doing the amazing work they do best, empowering them to dream big and providing a small boost to help them expand. “For us personally, it was an acknowledgment of the courage it takes to stand outside traditional systems and trust that passion, creativity, and community can drive real change,” Jessica says. “[The award] also connected us to an inspiring network of innovators and strengthened our belief that education entrepreneurship is the future, a path where freedom, innovation, and heart come together to help children truly flourish.”
But the award is doing more than just honoring founders leveraging the free market. The Enterprising Founder Award is setting a trend in the policy world to help us think differently about sustainable ways to honor, empower, and propel education entrepreneurs like the ones in this article.
For all of these founders, this award is more than recognition; it’s providing meaningful capital to help founders prioritize growth. Moreover, it’s starting conversations and amplifying the work already being done to change education for the better. As Coi added so beautifully, “If we want learner-centered models to become mainstream rather than niche, people need to know they exist and that they work.” That’s exactly what this award and our awardees are doing!
I am so excited that this program is being renewed for a second year with even bigger things in store. Right now, applications are open again, and it could be your chance to be honored as an Enterprising Founder. Nominate someone you know by visiting our Instagram page @_edentrepreneur and submit your application today by visiting edentrepreneur.org!
The post The Enterprising Founder Award was first published by the Foundation for Economic Education, and is republished here with permission. Please support their efforts.
