DSST Public Schools and Arc Institute Receive Donations as Part of the Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship’s 2023 CEO Prize Event

November 09, 2023, LOS ANGELES, CA — The Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship announces today donations to DSST Public Schools (previously known as Denver School of Science and Technology) and Arc Institute as a part of the Foundation’s 2023 CEO Prize. The Singleton CEO Prize recognizes and honors a living CEO whose work demonstrates a combination of talent, vision, focus, and commitment, thereby producing exceptional shareholder returns over decades.  This year’s prize was awarded to Dr. John Malone, Chairman of the Board of Liberty Media Corporation, Liberty Broadband Corporation and Liberty Global PLC. Additionally, a new award was introduced this year with Patrick and John Collison, Cofounders of Stripe, Inc, receiving the inaugural Next Generation CEO Prize. With the prize comes a donation to the honoree's charity of choice.  This year, DSST Public Schools, designated by Dr. John Malone, will receive the $250,000 gift and Arc Institute, designated by Patrick and John Collison, will receive the $100,000 gift.

DSST Public Schools’ mission is to transform urban public education by eliminating educational inequity and preparing all students for success in college and the 21st century. “On behalf of the entire DSST Public Schools community, we want to congratulate Dr. John Malone on this well- deserved honor from the Singleton Foundation and to thank the foundation for its incredible generosity,” said Bill Kurtz, CEO of DSST Public Schools. “John is not only a courageous and innovative leader, he also humbles our organization by his generosity. This year we are celebrating our 20th anniversary year at DSST, and John’s ongoing support of our public charter school system has been pivotal to scaling our network into our current 16 public schools that serve over 7,200 6-12th grade students across Denver and Aurora. At the core of DSST’s work is our track record of 100% admission to college for every graduate since 2008 and our commitment to preparing every student for college so that they have access to careers in STEM and other pivotal jobs of the future. We also encourage our students to consider entrepreneurship, which is one of our STEM high school coursework tracks, in hopes that students will follow John’s footsteps, by building enterprises that meet the demands of our shared future. We are profoundly honored to be recognized as John’s charity of choice for this prize. Thank you for being a partner in this work, John, and congratulations on this very well deserved award.”

Arc Institute is a nonprofit research organization with the mission to accelerate scientific progress and understand the root causes of complex diseases, like Alzheimer’s and aging. To tackle these challenges, they are convening researchers working in diverse fields across biomedicine, engineering, and AI. Arc is partnered with Stanford, UCSF, and UC Berkeley and provides researchers with no-strings-attached, multi-year funding, access to cutting-edge experimental and computational technology, and avenues for interdisciplinary collaboration. By doing this, the Institute aims to improve human health by narrowing the gap between discoveries and impact on patients. “This gift will enable Arc researchers to pursue their most groundbreaking work,” said Patrick Hsu, Arc Institute’s Co-founder and a Core Investigator. “All of us at Arc thank Patrick and John for supporting bold, curiosity-driven science that is too risky for traditional funding mechanisms. We congratulate them on this exciting accomplishment and express our gratitude to the Singleton Foundation for this generous gift.”

“The CEO Prize is an important component of the Singleton Foundation,” said Shelley Miles, CEO of the Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship.  “These donations exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit on which our organization was founded, and allow DSST Public Schools and Arc Institute to grow the resources to better fulfill the missions of their organizations.”

About The Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship
The mission of The Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship is to inspire entrepreneurship and to make financial competence fun, engaging and accessible to all. Our goal is to help give everyone the financial skills they need to better manage their lives and their businesses.

About DSST Public Schools
DSST Public Schools (DSST) operates a network of STEM middle and high schools in Denver and Aurora, Colorado. DSST serves over 7,200 students at 16 schools across eight campuses on behalf of Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools. All DSST students enroll via an open lottery–there are no other admissions criteria. DSST believes students are best served by integrated public schools that reflect the diversity of their community–nearly 90% of DSST students are students of color and more than 70% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. In 2018, DSST was awarded the Broad Prize and recognized as the top charter school network in the country.

About Arc Institute
Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organization located in Palo Alto, California that aims to accelerate scientific progress and understand the root causes of complex diseases. Arc’s model gives scientists complete freedom to pursue curiosity-driven research agendas and fosters deep interdisciplinary collaboration. The Institute operates in close partnership with Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco. Arc was founded in 2021 by Silvana Konermann, Patrick Hsu, and Patrick Collison.

Media Contacts:
Jeff Hare /The Singleton Foundation
(818) 726-9238
jeffhare@singletonfoundation.org

Daniela Di Napoli / DSST Public Schools
(832) 656-5231
Daniela.DiNapoli@scienceandtech.org 

Jessica Adkins / Arc Institute
(650) 517-3965
jessica@arcinstitute.org