Leslie Cornfeld launched the National Education Opportunity Network, or NEON, to address educational inequality. After working with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Obama’s education secretaries, she noticed that low-income students rarely attended top universities. In 2019, with funding from the Carnegie Corporation, she started NEON to bring elite university courses to non-elite high schools. Over five years, NEON has offered 60 college courses to more than 40,000 students in 33 states. The nonprofit aims to reach 1 million students within a decade, providing college-level education to those who need it most.
