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Junior Achievement of Greater Miami Inc. has accepted a generous gift of $900,000, made by author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. This contribution is the largest gift from a single donor since the organization was founded 65 years ago.
Junior Achievement of Greater Miami intends to utilize Ms. Scott’s generous investment to increase its capacity to serve children in grades K-12 with innovative lessons focused on financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship.
“We greatly appreciate the incredible generosity of MacKenzie Scott for this amazing gift to our organization,” said Troy Templeton, managing partner, Trivest Partners, and Junior Achievement Board chair. “We are honored to have been selected and see this transformative investment into the South Florida community as recognition for the great work taking place as a result of the passion and commitment of the business community, educators, volunteers, and other partners who support Junior Achievement. We will use this gift as a catalyst to help accelerate the growth of JA programs to our at-risk K-12 students.”
Recognizing the unique need in the community, Junior Achievement implements several different programs throughout the year that not only serve students ranging from kindergarten through high school, but the dedicated staff and volunteers have sought to lighten the burden on our valued educators.
For example, Junior Achievement of Miami has been a model for other chapters around the country with the Stock Market Challenge, which is a three-arc course for high school students that teaches the basics of stocks and trading and culminates in a county-wide trading competition. Sponsors of the program experience the thrill of the student program at their own event, on the evening of the student competition.
The seventh annual event will be taking place on Oct. 20 at Akerman LLP in Brickell. More information about getting involved can be found at https://miami.ja.org/events/7th-annual-junior-achievement-stock-market-challenge.
For middle school students, JA Inspire has shown great success with both in-person and virtual programming to not only give Miami’s growing industries the opportunity to showcase their expertise, but to also give students the chance to identify potential career paths within their own community, and then choose classes accordingly.
Catherine Haga, president of Junior Achievement, said, “We are thrilled to have been selected and grateful for Ms. Scott’s acknowledgement in the important work done by Junior Achievement. We have experienced tremendous growth over the last four years, and the gift will boost JA’s plan to play a key role as a solution provider for Florida’s new financial literacy and money management half semester course.
“Additional local priorities include expansion of JA’s high school entrepreneurship programs, rolling out entrepreneurship programs and opportunities to the 18-25 age group, and continuing to build a bridge between education and the South Florida business community by focusing on local career opportunities and exploration,” Haga added.
Generous investments like Ms. Scott’s allow Junior Achievement to continue providing life-changing learning experiences to children in Miami and around the world, empowering them to develop the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities. Gifts of this size can yield incredible returns, especially when it comes to empowering youth; for today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders, workers, creators, and innovators and it is our responsibility to prepare them for whatever lies ahead.
Visit www.jamiami.org for more information.
