- My name is Jason Spyres, and at the age of 19,
I made a stupid decision to sell cannabis
and ended up in prison.
Fortunately, my mother sent me Khan Academy transcripts
to start improving my education.
And while I was doing that, other inmates noticed
and would come up to me and ask if I could help them.
When I'd ask them, "Why don't you try to get
"in the GED classes?"
Some of the waiting lists was too long.
Others, I realize, what it is is,
it's hard to admit you don't know something,
and it's embarrassing when you're a full-grown man
to say that you don't know
that there's three different ways to spell the word there.
So I'd help them.
And when I got out, I used Khan Academy's SAT program
to prepare myself,
and I ended up getting a 1440 on the SATs.
And after that, I applied and was accepted
into Stanford University.
I'm making this video today
'cause I wanna tell you that when you support Khan Academy,
you're not only supporting people like me
and helping me get to places like Stanford.
You're supporting a mission that strips away
the embarrassment factor of having to admit
you don't know something
because you wanna learn something.
The best teacher can only help the student
if they'll walk into the classroom,
and what Khan Academy does
is they put a classroom in everybody's home
on their time, on their schedule
without any embarrassment.
So I hope you will continue to support
Khan Academy's mission,
and I hope to continue to support the mission
of increasing a world-class education
for everybody everywhere.