Fellows receive two years of salary ($90,000/year) with full benefits and ongoing support from The Mind Trust staff to enable them to develop, build and launch their break-the-mold initiatives in underserved communities.

Press Release

Indianapolis, IN – The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based education nonprofit, received a record-breaking 405 applications for its prestigious Education Entrepreneur Fellowship. The Fellowship is a nationally unique incubator designed to empower the nation’s most promising education entrepreneurs to develop, build and launch transformational education enterprises. Through the Fellowship, The Mind Trust brings exceptionally talented people into public education to dramatically improve education outcomes in underserved communities. After an extensive review of applications by a team of experts in social and education entrepreneurship, three individuals will be selected in late 2009 as Fellows for the Education Entrepreneur Fellowship’s 2010 cohort.

The Mind Trust received submissions from 405 people from 44 states and 20 countries. The applicant pool includes 66 MBAs, 51 PhDs, 25 MEds and 23 JDs. Applicants received degrees from the nation’s best academic institutions including all eight Ivy League schools and 22 leading colleges and universities in Indiana.

The caliber and diversity of the applicants is exceptional, including:

employees of major U.S. and international companies, including Microsoft, Google, Coca-Cola, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Rolls-Royce, American Express, Standard and Poor's, General Motors, Angie’s List, Target, Motorola, and Proctor and Gamble;
public servants who have served in the White House, U.S. Senate, U.S. Departments of Education, Justice, State, and Interior, U.S. Army and Marine Corps, the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, NASA, the Commissioner of a State Commission on Higher Education, and an Indiana Governor’s Fellow;
representatives of education non-profits such as The New Teacher Project, Teach For America, KIPP, The Big Picture Company, National Education Association, and Education Pioneers, as well as other social sector organizations like Ashoka, Amnesty International, the Smithsonian Institution, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters;
members of media organizations including Dateline NBC, CBS, Nickelodeon, Viacom/MTV, Slate Magazine, Comedy Central, Warner Bros. Records, and China Daily;
and other noteworthy individuals including staff of major foundations, a former president of an acclaimed liberal arts College in New England, an NAACP Image Award winner, a United Nations Peacemaker Medal recipient, an outstanding teacher award winner, a Martin Luther King Scholar, and a Carnegie Fellow.

“It is heartening to see that so many exceptionally talented people from such diverse backgrounds want to apply their talents to transform our public education system,” said David Harris, President and CEO of The Mind Trust. “The Mind Trust is committed to supporting promising education entrepreneurs as they innovate to transform our public education system.”

The Fellowship provides ambitious entrepreneurs with both the opportunity to develop and launch their break-the-mold education ventures and the support and accountability necessary for success. Fellows receive two years of salary ($90,000/year) with full benefits and ongoing support from The Mind Trust staff to enable them to develop, build, and launch their break-the-mold initiatives in underserved communities.

About The Mind Trust

The Mind Trust is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to dramatically improve public education for underserved students by empowering education entrepreneurs to develop or expand transformative education initiatives. To achieve its mission, The Mind Trust has two strategies: (1) a nationally unique Education Entrepreneur Fellowship that serves as an incubator for transformative education ventures; and (2) a Venture Fund to recruit to Indianapolis the nation’s most successful entrepreneurial education initiatives. In 2008 The Mind Trust awarded Education Entrepreneur Fellowships to four exceptional leaders (see attached for more information). The Mind Trust has also invested over $3 million from its Venture Fund to successfully attract Teach For America, The New Teacher Project, College Summit and Diploma Plus to Indianapolis.

For more information, please visit www.themindtrust.org.

Source: The Mind Trust