DURHAM, N.H. - Eric Schwarz, founding CEO of Citizen Schools and executive chairman of US2020, has been named the Carsey 2014 Social Innovator of the Year. Schwarz will be honored at the New Hampshire Social Venture Innovation Challenge Monday, Dec. 15, 2014, at the University of New Hampshire, where he will deliver the keynote address on social entrepreneurship and systemic social change. The challenge and Schwarz's speech are free and open to the public but registration is required: www.unh.edu/svic
  
The Carsey Social Innovator of the Year Award recognizes a New England leader with a demonstrated commitment to social innovation. Social innovators combine the passion and purpose of a social or environmental mission, with the rigor and accountability of a financially sustainable, scalable model for change.

"Eric Schwarz has changed the opportunity equation in our country," said Yusi Turell, executive director of the UNH Carsey School of Public Policy's Center on Social Innovation and Finance. "By growing Citizen Schools and using its successes to impact education policy, Eric has not only helped local children 'beat the odds' in educational attainment, he has 'changed the odds' for all American children. Eric is a visionary, a critical thinker and outstanding leader."

Schwarz founded Citizen Schools in Boston in 1995 to support a vision of offering students in low-income communities a longer learning day, including hands-on "apprenticeships" led by volunteer "Citizen Teachers" from local businesses and universities. Now in seven states, Citizen Schools partners with public middle schools to expand the learning day for children through academic mentoring and skill-building apprenticeships. Over half of the skill-building apprenticeships are focused on STEM subjects and activities.

Schwarz is currently executive chairman of US2020, a STEM mentoring initiative inspired by a White House call to generate large-scale solutions to the nation's educational challenges in the STEM fields. US2020's goal is to match 1 million STEM mentors with students by the year 2020.

In addition to his keynote address, Schwarz will also lead a workshop, "The Opportunity Equation: Innovative Models for Business and Citizen Engagement in K-12 Education," with New Hampshire panelists Fred Bramante (National Center for Competency-Based Learning), Tanna Clews (N.H. Charitable Foundation STEM Pathways Initiative), Representative Mary Stuart Gile (N.H. House Education Committee), and Mark Greenlaw (FIRST). For more information visit www.unh.edu/svic.

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire is a nationally acclaimed resource for research, leadership development, and engaged scholarship relevant to public policy. It addresses the most pressing challenges of the 21st century, striving for innovative, responsive, and equitable solutions at all levels of government and in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. For more information go to http://www.carsey.unh.edu.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.
-

 
Photo for download: /unhtoday/news/releases/2014/12/images/schwarz-9510.png Caption: Eric Schwarz, founding CEO of Citizen Schools and executive chairman of US2020, has been named the Carsey 2014 Social Innovator of the Year. Credit: Paul Mobley.