Named in honor of BJ Cassin, a co-founder and longtime chairman of The Drexel Fund, the Cassin Prize celebrates accessible private schools in Drexel’s grants portfolio that have pioneered and scaled high-impact educational models.
The award made its debut in 2024, as BJ was transitioning into the chairman emeritus role at Drexel. Recipients receive a $25,000 award that can be used to further their educational mission.
After operating for more than 60 years as a single Catholic school, with about 125 students, Julie Billiart Schools has expanded to four campuses in Ohio since 2017—and now enrolls close to 450 students, all with special education needs. The first Julie Billiart school was founded in 1954 by the Sisters of Notre Dame to educate and care for children with unique academic, social and emotional needs. Today, JB students have a variety of learning differences, including autism, ADHD and dyslexia. They come from 75 different school districts across NE Ohio. The network has carefully studied and cultivated its academic model and school culture—which it calls the “JB Way”—and developed a strategy for infusing it into each new campus as it expands.
Founded in 2018, Icon Prep Schools grew from 300 students to nearly 1,400 across four schools in two states in just six years. The schools, which serve a student body that is nearly 100% economically disadvantaged, have excelled at producing student academic growth. The flagship campus in Tampa has seen a number of students complete high school and associate’s degrees by the age of 15. All of the schools feature a culture inspired by Florida A&M University, a historically Black university, including an impressive marching band program. What they don’t feature is tuition, as Icon schools cover their operating budgets almost entirely with the public funding students receive via Ohio’s EdChoice voucher and Florida’s Empowerment Scholarship.