TED Prize winners

A few years ago, TED launched the TED prize.  Three talented individuals are selected each year to receive the prize which consists of $100,000 in cash PLUS (and this is the really valuable part) one wish.  The concept is that the TED community will rally around the wish and help make it come true.

This year's three winners are

The first winner is David Eggers.  He saw a need to He developed a program to get writers to help tutor kids in troubled school areas.  The tutoring center behind a Pirate Supply store in California, and a SuperHero supply store in Brooklyn and a Space Travel Supply Company in Seattle, and a Spy Supply store in Chicago.  The brilliance of this project is that they create a wonderful environment where kids want to go, and once they get in there, they get one-on-one attention to help them with their writing.  Dave's wish is to get 1000 creative individuals working with students in different ways.  The web site onceuponaschool.org will document different ways that you can get involved.

The second  winner is  Neil Turok, a theoretical physics professor from Cambridge who has put forward the concept of the Endless Universe. Neil is originally from Africa.  He started an organization to help educate students in Africa and to help them get the high level of education they need there, aqs opposed to going abroad.  The organization he developed is called the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS).  His wish is to create a network of AIM"s centers across Africa designed to help achieve his educational objective.  His dream is that the next Einstien will come from Africa.

The third winner is Karen Armstrong.  She is one of the foremost students of world religions and traditions.  Her wish is based on a beautiful premise.  According to her, the underpinning of all three of the Abrahamic religions is The Golden Rule. As such, she wants to establish an organization with a charter of compassion that will bring together leaders of the Christian, Judaic and Muslim faiths to work together to build on the concepts of universal justice and respect that is core to all three religions.