The Reifschneider family has created The Rostam Reifschneider Endowed Award for Leadership, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (The R^2 Award) to honor a student each year who most embodies the ideals of leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurial excellence that was the hallmark of Rostam Reifschneider, class of 2017. This honor will include funding of up to $4,000 for a project or learning experience that falls within the award's proposal guidelines.

Eric Yang joined the Design and Innovation program in eighth grade and has spent the past three years honing various skills from user research, programming, UX design, and entrepreneurship. Eric is the co-founder of the brand Streaming Warm, a company that developed high-tech towels for swimmers. He has filed several patents, and he currently leads a Flex Time focused on teaching other students the process of turning an idea into a real product. Eric is constantly innovating new products that can benefit the community, and he is an entrepreneur who owns his product end-to-end. Every idea he fulfills is delivered with the utmost care and professionalism.

Eric founded Torrey Startup this year in hopes to provide the tools and opportunities to students here at Country Day that aspire to become entrepreneurs and grow their own businesses and companies. This year, Eric has helped develop tens of ideas and has helped the team achieve over 7,000 dollars in funds in 1 semester of time. Eric has acquired professional patent and trademark lawyers, in addition to a professional board of entrepreneurs to help grow and develop products.

Eric hopes to continue to grow businesses and lead Startup in the upcoming years! Congratulations Eric on this award!