JA Miami hosts our first RISING WOMEN event!

Dear readers,

Being an ambitious woman in a business career isn’t always easy, and no one knows that more than the inspiring women on our board, our Young Professionals Network, and our staff. We were looking for interesting ways to come together and share the knowledge that the women in our networks have built up over their careers, and this month, we’re excited to debut a new event that I hope will become an annual signature event at JA Miami. 

JA Rising Women will empower middle- and high-school girls, with the help of a dynamic coterie of inspiring women in finance (and other) to mentor and teach them. During the event, we’re pairing our students with successful women for 1:1 mentoring, guidance, and programming over an exciting half-day experience. 

It’s happening for the first time this week, and we’ll report back with our learnings and inspiration! If you’d like to learn more about our events and what we have planned for the rest of the year, you can see our calendar here.

Speaking of calendars, it's hard to believe we're already nearing the end of the school year! As we close out 2024-25 and our fiscal year, I'm asking you to consider a donation as part of our end of year giving campaign. If you'd like to make a gift or set up a recurring contribution, please take a look at the options here.

With gratitude,

President and CEO, Junior Achievement of Greater Miami

Orange you glad that financial literacy can be fun? (Ouch.) But "My Gym Buddy" certainly did have

an entertaining pitch, and winning, pitch at the JA Company Program Competition!

• JA Miami is thrilled to announce that four(!) of our local JA Company Program and Social Innovation Challenge teams have been selected to compete at the national level. JA Company Program is one of our annual signature events, in which high school students create their own small businesses from scratch, then pitch them to our panel of expert judges. They build essential business skills by identifying challenges, creating solutions, and developing a product or service to meet the need. The Social Innovation Challenge is also about identifying solutions, but this program focuses on students coming up with innovative ideas to make an impact in their community.

• Our top teams will be going to the 2025 JA USA Future Bound Summit in Atlanta in June to pitch their ideas to a major panel of judges and investors. Here’s a quick rundown of their projects:

JA Company Program

• My Gym Buddy (Dr. Michael Krop Senior High School) won first place at the JA Company Program Competition at Miami-Dade College. They created an innovative fitness bag, paired with an AI companion, to create a supportive fitness community that includes body positivity and confidence.

• Charm Dept (Coral Gables Senior High School) came in second place at our Miami competition They provide high-quality, customizable accessories that celebrate individuality while fostering inclusivity, unity, and belonging within diverse communities. 

Social Innovation Challenge

• Louder Than Words (Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High School) is a creative youth initiative combining music, spoken word poetry, and the arts to address the challenges of growing up in an underserved community. They empower young people with a creative storytelling outlet through workshops and performances.

• The Three Gardeneers (Coral Reef High School) spread awareness about the importance of agriculture through a community garden, nurtured for students by students.

• JA Young Professionals Network: We’re opening up membership for next year. Come hang out with like-minded mid-career professionals, make connections, get involved with events and volunteering and much more! You can sign up here.

• Call for Entrepreneurs: We're also opening up our call for entrepreneurs, especially retired folks who have some free volunteering time, to form the first volunteer cohort for next year's new Entrepreneurial Mindset classes. These will be offered to 9th and 10th graders as a precursor to the JA Company Program. Mentors will work with the same students over the course of the school year to guide them on what it takes to be a business founder. If you're interested, please get in touch with us at contact@jamiami.org.

• We were so sorry to postpone our 32nd Annual Golf, Tennis, and Pickleball Invitational, and are excited to announce the new date of June 2, 2025, at Deering Bay Yacht & Country Club. If you had a ticket to play or attend the after-party, you should have already received an email with the new logistics. You can also purchase a Fiesta ticket here!

• This Thursday, May 22, we will host our inaugural JA Rising Women event, in partnership with Costex Miami! We’ll be sharing some key takeaways on our social media and in our next newsletter. Thank you again to all of the partners and sponsors who trusted us in this new endeavor!

It’s not all about the high-schoolers this month! We also hosted a number of JA Days,

like this one at Norland Elementary with volunteers from Citi.

Here at JA Miami, it’s our mission to teach kids about money – how to earn it, save it, spend it, and share it. We rely on our Greater Miami community for volunteering, funding, and to invite us into their classrooms. If you'd like to learn more or set up a meeting to speak directly with our Education or Development departments, please reach out here and we'd be thrilled to set that up!