Greetings from San Francisco!
Submissions for the Holman Prize, LightHouse for the Blind’s annual $25,000 award for blind adventurers and creators to complete their most ambitious projects, are now open!
The initial application is a challenging one: each applicant will submit a 90 second YouTube video describing the project that they would undertake with the prize money, as well as a brief written questionnaire. Afterwards, a group of semifinalists will be asked to provide in-depth written proposals, and later, a select subset of finalists will be interviewed by LightHouse staff.
Applications close February 28 at noon Pacific Standard Time. Late applications will not be accepted.
The Holman Prize was launched by LightHouse for the Blind in San Francisco lighthouse-sf.org in 2017 as a means of enabling legally blind people from around the world to make their dreams a reality. In our inaugural year, we received over 200 applications from more than two dozen countries, and our three winners, chosen by a panel of blind judges, represent a wide spectrum of ambition and ingenuity.
- Ahmet Ustunel lighthouse-sf.org/blog/meet-ahmet-ustunel-blind-kayaker-and-holman-prizewinner is training to kayak Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait, completely solo.
- Penny Melville-Brown lighthouse-sf.org/blog/meet-penny-melville-brown-blind-baker-and-holman-prizewinner is taking her YouTube baking show to five continents.
- Ojok Simon lighthouse-sf.org/blog/meet-ojok-simon-blind-beekeeper-and-holman-prizewinner is teaching his fellow Ugandans to become self-sustaining beekeepers.
You can learn more about our three inaugural winners in this short video filmed during a week of cooking, sailing, beekeeping and more in San Francisco and read about the prize in the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the BBC, PRI’s The World and on our website and FAQ page.
We’d love to hear from you, and certainly don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have.
All the best,
Max Savage Levenson
Holman Prize Coordinator
LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1155 Market Street, 10th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103