It is with great pride that we’re finally able to announce that our Founder and CEO, Christopher Gray, is to be honored as a winner of the 2016 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards for creating Scholly.

From their site: First introduced in 2012, the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards was created to recognize the previous year’s shining achievements, of individuals in nine categories, who have had a revolutionary effect on how we perceive the world and how we live in it. Groundbreaking innovators are across categories including technology, performing and visual arts, natural and physical sciences, education, historical scholarship, social progress and youth achievement. The honorees embody the Smithsonian Institution’s mission of increasing and diffusing knowledge.

As the winner of their Youth Achievement category they further explain that, “Christopher Gray is the founder and CEO of Scholly, the groundbreaking web and mobile app that matches current or future college students who need financial support with scholarships that can help them. Scholly has been downloaded 850,000 times and has connected college students with some $50 million in scholarships. Philadelphia-based Gray, an ABC “Shark Tank” winner and recipient of a $100,000 grant from philanthropist Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest competition, sees his digital platform as a 21st-century tool for helping countless young Americans achieve their college dreams without piling on crushing debt.”

We are truly humbled by this great honor and to be in the company of Jeff Bezos, Aziz Ansari, OK GO, David Lynch, and other incredible people this year. We don’t do what we do for the recognition, but we’ll be honest with you, when we get it from an organization like The Smithsonian well… it sure  does feel good.

See the other winners here.