The Academy of Achievement is like no other organization in the world. For over 50 years, this unique nonprofit foundation has sparked the imaginations of young people across America and around the globe by bringing them together with the preeminent leaders of our times. The Academy was founded by Brian Blaine Reynolds, an acclaimed photographer best known for his contributions to Life magazine and Sports Illustrated. The Academy's first Banquet of the Golden Plate program was held at Monterey, California in September of 1961. The Academy programs transfer knowledge, inspiration and the benefit of extraordinary experiences from one generation of achievers to the next. The annual International Achievement Summit has provided thousands of outstanding young people with an all-expense-paid life-changing experience — one in which young men and women whose dreams will determine our collective tomorrow draw inspiration from those individuals who have shaped the world of today. Since 1961, these forums have allowed exceptional young delegates to interact one-on-one with Nobel Prize-winners in the arts and sciences, public servants, prize-winning journalists, explorers, humanitarians, champion athletes, entrepreneurs, entertainers, and countless others who represent achievement in their respective fields. Such personal encounters send an enormously powerful message to a generation raised in a world that so often values the superficial and ephemeral over the monumental and enduring.