The Cleveland Leadership Center hosted the 12th Annual Accelerate: Citizens Make Change pitch competition on Thursday, Feb. 26 at Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, drawing crowds of supporters, fellow entrepreneurs, and thinkers of all ages with concepts for the next great business launch.

The Accelerate 2026 Finalist Parade at Huntington Convention Center. Justin Bernard and Prentice Howard’s plan to help K-12 English Learners (EL) master the English language won the grand prize.
Bernard and Howard won $5,000 in the overall pitch competition for LanguageBridge in the Accelerate’s Education category—one of six categories in the competition, with the remaining five categories being Arts & Culture, Climate & Energy Innovation, Health & Well Being, and Social Change.

LanguageBridge, a Google Chrome extension, provides audio-first language translation using three tools—audio translation, a tiered language glossary, and a two-way translation tool for conversations with the teacher—to help SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education) users learn English and avoid the normal pitfalls.

The extension allows users to highlight text on a website, PDF, or digital textbook, and the text is then translated into the student’s native language. Nine languages are currently supported (Urdu, Somali, Dari, Persian, Pashto, Arabic, Ukrainian, Spanish, and English) in LanguageBridge.

“Bridging the gap of communication brings powerful tools into the hands of these kids where they can really take charge of their education,” says Bernard, who adds that they plan to use the grand prize money to add Hmong and Nepali languages to LanguageBridge and build out the Chrome extension, so it is compatible with the iPad.

“The judges were excited by LanguageBridge’s potential to support education in our community by ensuring that students do not fall behind in their other learning while they work on learning English,” says Accelerate education judge Sara Elaqud, who is also executive director of college prep program Minds Matter Cleveland. “In LanguageBridge, we saw a high potential for significant social good along with a solid implementation plan that the prize money could propel into execution.”

The four category finalists who received $2,000:

• Arts & Culture: Dr. Ken Schneck and Dr. Erin Benay’s “Cleveland’s Concrete Quilt” will create a public memorial that commemorates people lost to HIV/AIDS. The project is modeled after the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Schneck and Benay say they plan to invite community members to paint three-foot-by-six-foot panels in memory of loved ones lost to HIV/AIDS. Up to 80 panels will be installed together in an underpass near Edgewater Park, creating a large-scale, accessible outdoor art installation.

  Additionally, Benay and Schneck say they will have interpretive panels at the site that will offer information about HIV testing and PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis). “We hope the Concrete Quilt will be an opportunity for community engagement at a time when it cannot be more needed—engaging our local citizens in living process of commemoration, creation and healing,” Benay and Schneck told the audience in their pitch.
  

• Climate & Energy Innovation: Isaiah Jackson is creating a Solar Powered Algae Air Purifier (SPAAP)—a self-contained bioreactor that captures carbon emissions that generate water. “Small thoughts of helping others, and doing what I love, turned to an ambition to really do my own unique thing in helping people in my own way,” Jackson said in his pitch, “making technology that makes conditions on this planet more conducive to humanity and nature cooperating together.”

• Health & Well Being: Lori Lynn and Dina Rock’s Next Steps Eldercare Consulting navigate the complex process of caregiving through community workshops. Lynn and Rock talked about the frustration caregivers can experience when they are making difficult decisions for aging family members. “Aging is a journey,” they said in their pitch, “and no one should have to navigate it alone.”

• Social Change: Danie White’s vision for Neighbors Community Farms, transforms growing spaces in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood into mini farms for growing food by partnering with local nonprofits and institutions. White says she decided to pitch at Accelerate because she believes sustainable ideas grow best when they’re rooted locally and supported boldly. “This is me planting a seed and trusting the right conditions to help it rise,” she said at Accelerate.

Accelerate: Technovation
Accelerate's Technovation competition is an additional optional opportunity for those who have tech-driven ideas for social good in Cuyahoga County to win $3,500.

Accelerate 2026 Technovation winner Cambron Jones of SayItBuddy, the app '“Giving Every Child a Voice.'Cambron Jones’ app, SayItBuddy, won the $3,500 prize. The app allows non-verbal and speech-delayed children to tap images to produce spoken words—allowing them to communicate.

Jones says the app, which is tagged with the line “Giving Every Child a Voice,” is a low-cost solution to expensive speech-generating devices. Jones is the father of a four-year-old son with autism and uses technology to solve real world problems and help people communicate.

“The biggest influence was my son and watching him try to communicate and seeing the frustration that can come when words don't come to him easily,” recalled Jones in his pitch. “It made me realize how important communication tools are…I wanted to build something that was simply accessible to everyone and designed from a parent’s perspective.”

Accelerate: Teens Make Change
At the February Accelerate event, 21 high school students on 12 teams pitched their ideas at the Teen Accelerate: competition, sponsored by the Young Entrepreneur Institute at University School.

WeFill pitch presenters Lucas Fuciu and Parker Heffelfinger.The teams from various Northeast Ohio schools each had five minutes to pitch their ideas to a panel of five judges. Their pitches covered initiatives like socks for unhoused people; food waste reduction; online student-to-student tutoring services; and safe job connecting.

St. Ignatius High School students Benjamin Scott Petrus, Anthony Anghilante, Anthony Coale, and Hayden Koelliker won the $1,000 prize with their winning pitch for Teen Hustle, a platform that connects young adults to local jobs, keeping parents involved. Teen Hustle uses verification, in-app messaging, and structure bookings to keep teens safe while searching for job opportunities.

In addition to the money, the students were paired with a mentor from a partner organization to help launch the concept.

Shaker Heights High School student Isaiah Bady was awarded $500 for his second-place pitch for his Sensory Safe Cuts—a mobile barber shop that provides calm sensory-friendly haircuts for children and adults with sensory sensitivities.

The remaining 10 finalists each received $250 toward their projects.

Some of the finalists include:

• NextGen Creators Initiative, Joshua M. Gary, Richmond Heights High School.
• Light of Love, Priyasha Ghosal, Hawken Upper School.
• R.I.S.E (Reentry Inspiring Systemic Equality) Initiative, Hannah Rosenfeld, Laurel School.
• Heavy Hugs, Brett David Jankowski, David Wadley, and Talon from Howard Hoover High School.
• YouthServeCCIS, Charlie Martin, and Jack Nelson, University School.
• Second Serving, Ananya Rao, Hathaway Brown School.
• Sustainable Socks, Lucile Hoffer, Laurel School; and Learn Fellow LLC, Luke Rapaka, Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy.