Khan Academy and Hyatt to Launch First-Ever LearnStorm Math Challenge across Chicagoland

Former NASA astronaut and pro-football player Leland Melvin
encourages students to participate in breakthrough math challenge
focused on grit and hustle

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Hyatt
Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) together with Khan
Academy today announced that LearnStorm,
a free and innovative digital learning challenge, will launch in
Chicagoland on January 29, 2016 to help transform the future of tens of
thousands of students. It is the first time the challenge will be
available to students in the Chicagoland region, including Cook, DuPage,
Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.

“LearnStorm is a tangible way to engage Chicagoland students to help
them to be their best and succeed in ways they didn’t know were
possible,” said Mark Hoplamazian, CEO and President of Hyatt. “It is
critical for us to support our hometown of Chicago, and there is no
better way to do that than by strengthening our relationship with Khan
Academy through an innovative program that invests in the talent of
tomorrow through technology and education.”

The free, nine-week math challenge will be available in schools across
Chicagoland and will run through April 1, 2016. Local students in grades
3-12 will be able to participate to earn points and unlock real-life
rewards for themselves and their schools by practicing math skills.

“We designed LearnStorm to not only teach math, but also to encourage a
growth mindset, or the belief that anyone can build and grow
intelligence through practice and perseverance,” said Sal Khan, Founder
and CEO of the not-for-profit Khan Academy. “We’ve seen that when
students have resources to learn at their own time and pace, they not
only find it valuable, but fun.”

“Hyatt shares our values and has been a great education supporter in
Chicago. That makes them an ideal partner for LearnStorm,” added Khan.

There will be two types of points earned by students throughout the
program: “mastery points” represent an understanding of math skills, and
“hustle points” will be earned when a student demonstrates perseverance
and grit when learning a new skill. LearnStorm is breaking new ground by
rewarding not only the knowledge students attain, but also the learning
skills they need to attain it. This broader focus means LearnStorm can
challenge any student no matter their pre-existing level.

“By giving more of our students opportunities to learn math through the
LearnStorm challenge, we will help them succeed in the STEM jobs of the
21st century economy,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “I want to thank Hyatt
and Khan Academy for engaging Chicago’s next generation of innovators.
This challenge will open more doors of opportunity for our students to
land good-paying jobs today in the promising careers of tomorrow.”

Chicago Public Schools has worked closely with Khan Academy and Hyatt to
endorse LearnStorm and share the challenge with students across the
district.

“CPS is always looking for innovative ways to get students excited about
learning, and LearnStorm is another tool to do just that,” said Dr.
Shawn Jackson, Acting Officer of Family and Community Engagement,
Chicago Public Schools. “This challenge has the dual benefit of being a
great resource for teachers and helping students conquer critical math
skills.”

Weekly leaderboards will show school and individual results for both
mastery and hustle. LearnStorm will culminate in a final in-person
celebration of the hard work and effort of the participating students
and schools in Chicagoland.

“I am so proud to be a part of this exciting effort that lets students
know anything is possible when they put their minds to it,” said Leland
Melvin, former NASA astronaut and pro-football player, who joined Hyatt,
Khan Academy and more than 150 area students at the Jesse White
Community Center and Fieldhouse Thursday to kick off the challenge. “My
days as both a pro-football player and NASA astronaut not only taught me
about grit, hustle and perseverance, but it also showed me how important
it is to learn skills like mathematics. With the help of Hyatt and Khan
Academy, LearnStorm has the ability to transform and inspire thousands
of students to reach for the stars.”

For more information on LearnStorm Chicago or to sign up, visit www.learnstorm2016.org.

About Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to change education
for the better by providing a free, world-class education for anyone,
anywhere. We believe that students of all ages should have free,
unlimited access to the best educational content, and that they should
be able to consume and master this content at their own pace. In
addition, we believe that there are incredible opportunities to use
intelligent software development, deep data analytics, and intuitive
user interfaces to more effectively surface and present these
educational resources to students and teachers around the world. Our
library of content covers kindergarten to early college math, science
topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and reaches into
humanities with tutorials on economics, finance, music, philosophy, and
art history. To date, we have delivered over 700m lessons and nearly 5
billion practice problems. For further information, visit www.khanacademy.org.

The term “Hyatt” is used in this release for convenience to refer to
Hyatt Hotels Corporation and/or one or more of its affiliates.

About Hyatt

Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global
hospitality company with a proud heritage of making guests feel more
than welcome. Thousands of members of the Hyatt family strive to make a
difference in the lives of the guests they encounter every day by
providing authentic hospitality. The Company’s subsidiaries develop,
own, operate, manage, franchise, license or provide services to hotels,
resorts, branded residences and vacation ownership properties, including
under the Hyatt®, Park Hyatt®, Andaz®, Grand Hyatt®, Hyatt CentricTM,
Hyatt Regency®, Hyatt Place®, Hyatt House®, Hyatt ZilaraTM,
Hyatt ZivaTM, Hyatt Residences® and Hyatt
Residence Club® brand names and have locations on six
continents. As of September 30, 2015, the Company’s worldwide portfolio
consisted of 627 properties in 52 countries. For more information,
please visit www.hyatt.com.

Contacts

Hyatt
Jamie Rothfeld, 312-780-6070
jamie.rothfeld@hyatt.com
or
FleishmanHillard
Allyson
Putman, 312-729-3685
Allyson.Putman@fleishman.com