We’re awarding 10 brilliant undergraduate students up to $10,000 to make their passion project a reality. Stay tuned on Friday for the OZY Genius Awards ceremony, sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Spring has only just sprung, but for 10 lucky college students summer’s warm glow is coming early. The sunbeams? Up to $10,000 and a mentor to help each of them grow their promising ideas into reality.

For the second year, we are announcing the winners of the OZY Genius Awards (OGA), who will be featured at a star-studded event in New York City on Friday. Our initiative is inspired by the story of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, whose friends pooled their resources to enable the young writer to take a year off from work, giving her the time she needed to write her masterpiece. Like Lee’s friends, OZY looks to sponsor projects that require time, thoughtfulness and a bit of support.

These aren’t students looking for seed money to become rich; they’re looking to solve problems.

Kristin Lemkau, chief marketing officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

From hundreds of applications featuring pitches about novels, documentaries, apps, prosthetics and more, a team of judges — including Laurene Powell Jobs, founder of Emerson Collective; Katie Couric, Yahoo global news anchor; David Drummond, Google executive; and Jarl Mohn, NPR president and CEO — has chosen 10 bright stars. “We were blown away by the entries,” says Kristin Lemkau, an OGA judge and chief marketing officer at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “What’s most amazing are the stories. These aren’t students looking for seed money to become rich; they’re looking to solve problems.” What most impressed Carlos Watson, OZY’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, was the fact that so many applicants pointed to a strong team as a key determinant of their success. “That tells me not only that these geniuses are humble,” says Watson, “but also that they are open to ideas, and those are key qualities in a leader.”

And the 2017 OZY Genius Award Winners Are …

Javier Valverde (University of Notre Dame)

Claudine Humure (Wheaton College)

Amanda Gorman (Harvard University)

Steve Rathje (Stanford University)

Gevick Safarians (University of California, Los Angeles)

Elise Shea (Vassar College)

Dante Alvarado-Leon (University of California, Berkeley)

Trang Duong (Brown University)

Aidan McCarty (Stanford University)

Maria Mckiever (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Here at OZY, part of our mission is to identify future talent through our Rising Stars section. Take Kalina Silverman. This California-born-and-bred Northwestern grad wanted to introduce the world to “Big Talk.” Before OGA, her project was a group of video interviews with passers-by in which she asked such thought-provoking and bucket-list questions as “What do you want to do before you die?” (as opposed to “small talk” banter about the weather). Deeper interactions, she believes, lead to more meaningful human interaction. Winning the award enabled Silverman to launch a website, make multiple videos and integrate across various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram while also building an email newsletter list that now reaches thousands. She has gone into schools and businesses to discuss her conversation-prompting program, developed a flash-card game to get the chats rolling, advised people on how to have “Big Talk” around the globe and even launched an educational program for prisoners. Silverman is now working on a storytelling summer program for Chinese and American students.

Anybody, in any craft, with enough attention, grit and perseverance can show signs of genius and maybe even perfect it at some point.

Jarl Mohn, president and CEO, NPR

For many, the word “genius” can be intimidating. But big dreamers should think of it as 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, says Mohn, referencing Thomas Edison. “Anybody, in any craft, with enough attention, grit and perseverance can show signs of genius and maybe even perfect it at some point,” he says.

Be sure to also check out last year’s lucky 10, and watch OZY in the coming weeks for features on the 2017 OGA winners, their brilliant project plans and more words of wisdom from our judges.

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