Bay Area educators score $10 million prize in national contest co-launched by Steve Jobs' widow

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Thursday, September 15, 2016
Bay Area educators score $10M prize in national contest
A project that was co-launched by the widow of Steve Jobs just awarded educators in the Bay Area $10 million to build a new facility; one that will re-think public education.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A group of Bay Area educators is celebrating after scoring a huge prize in a national contest.

ABC7 News was at San Jose's Summit Tahoma on Wednesday, where high school students jumped for joy as they heard the news.

The announcement came from Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi in Washington D.C.

Summit public schools will be awarded $10 million to build a new high school in Oakland. The new campus, called Summit Elevate, will re-think public education.

The goal is to have students focus on areas of interest, then self-guide their learning with online tools and internships.

"They want to know what are your plans for college," said student K'la Gonzalez. "What do you hope to do after college, like what do you want to do with the world?"

There were 10,000 entries for the XQ Super School Project, which was co-launched Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve jobs.

Much of the inspiration behind the proposal came from Summit's current schools, including the location in San Jose where students jumped for joy when they heard about the win.

Summit hopes to open its Elevate campus in the fall of 2018.