PORT CLYDE — Herring Gut Coastal Science Center has been selected as one of 64 quarterfinalists for the Yass Prize for Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding and Permissionless Education (STOP). This national competition recognizes organizations that deliver programs tackling big education challenges with a commitment to new ideas, technologies, and approaches to learning that bring education into the 21st century. 

Herring Gut Coastal Science Center was chosen from nearly 2,000 applications, representing 27 million students from every sector in education and every grade in the PreK-12 continuum across all 50 states. Applicants included charter schools, private schools, education technology companies, national school networks, and educator recruitment programs.  

Selection as a quarterfinalist guarantees Herring Gut a $100,000 prize to fuel their mission of educating students and communities about the connections between the ocean, inland waters, and economy of Maine.  

Yass Prize Quarterfinalists represent a microcosm of 21st century personalized approaches that better educate students from pre-K through higher education. 

“Each year we are amazed by the breadth and depth of the innovators that step forward and do the hard work to apply and go through the process,” said Janine Yass, founder of The Yass Prize, in a Herring Gut news release. “I’m just incredibly proud of this new cohort of 64 who together will address every sort of student and family, every kind of terrain, community and challenge.” 

Of the 64 awardees, Herring Gut is one of only three from New England to be recognized as the most innovative education providers of 2023. The other New England awardees are Old Sturbridge Academy (Sturbridge, Massachusetts) and St. George Municipal School Unit (St. George, Maine), Herring Gut’s neighbor and education partner.

"This national recognition is a testament to the hard work and creativity of our teaching staff to excite all kinds of learners,” said Philip Conkling, president of the Herring Gut Coastal Science Center Board. “The fact that our partners at the St. George Municipal School Unit also received this award demonstrates that small and dedicated organizations are learning laboratories at the cutting edge of education excellence."