JA Alumni News: March 2023

2023 Nobel Peace Prize–JA Worldwide’s Second Nomination

For the second year in a row, JA Worldwide has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. JA in 100+ countries delivers over 15 million student learning experiences for employment and entrepreneurship in the last year alone. The nomination is a testament to JA’s mission to empower economic development, leading to prosperity and peace.

“Peace is possible only when youth in all countries and regions have economic empowerment. By creating opportunity, prosperity, and self-belief, JA’s work empowers youth in over 100 countries with the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities. For over a century, JA has operated in areas of political instability, violence, and war, helping youth build entrepreneurship skills and economic resilience. For this work, JA Worldwide is recognized year after year as one of the top ten NGOs in the world, providing economic empowerment to millions of young people.” – Asheesh Advani, CEO of JA Worldwide.

Read more about the nomination here.

For the Globe 🧐

Attend Quarter #4 JA Alumni ClubHouse

Get together on June 15, 10amEDT/3pmCET/10pmHKT to brainstorm and exchange ideas on the best practices for building your local alumni chapter. You will also get early access to global JA Alumni initiatives that you can be part of.

For the Quarter #4 JA Alumni Clubhouse, there will be a 40-minute presentation on global, regional and local alumni initiatives and a 20-minute facilitated breakout session that aims to support alumni leaders in the following verticals: membership 🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏻, engagement 🔥, starting a chapter 💼, and JA offices 🏢.

RSVP to attend JA Alumni Clubhouse here. We can’t wait to see you on June 15.

Read Asheesh’s Notes from Davos: The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

Asheesh Advani, CEO of JA Worldwide, attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting and created a diary for everyone in the JA network to learn from his experience from Davos, Switzerland. Asheesh was part of the panel of speakers talking about “How to Prevent Loss Learning”.

Moreover, Fahd Jamaleddine, Alumni Board Member of JA Worldwide, was also present at the annual meeting and had the pleasure to meet Asheesh in person for the first time.

Congratulate Hekima Inc. from JA Zimbabwe, the 2023 De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award

The De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award recognizes outstanding young entrepreneurs within the JA network. The winning team from each regional JA Company Program competition in Africa, Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, MENA, and the United States was automatically entered for the award.

Founded by tech-legend Ralph de la Vega, former President and CEO of AT&T Mobile and Business Solutions, in 2021, the De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award is the first global award for the JA Company program. The 2023 competition included teams from Greece (JA Europe), Ohio (Junior Achievement USA), UAE (INJAZ Al-Arab), Mexico (JA Americas), Guam (JA Asia Pacific), and Zimbabwe (JA Africa).

Ultimately, JA Zimbabwe’s Hekima Inc. from Maranatha Christian School in Harare triumphed for its educational app Study Buddie. The team won a cash prize of US$15,000, as well as an entrepreneurship course from the institution of their choice. The five other JA student companies also won US $5,000 each, courtesy of the de la Vega Family Foundation.

Learn more about Hekima Inc here and watch the full 2023 De La Vega Entrepreneurship Award Ceremony.

What’s Happening? 

Cornel Amariei from JA Alumni Romania Received US Patent

Growing up, Cornel watched his parents move through the world with locomotor disabilities, and his sister as she lived with cerebral disability. The culmination of events led to the formation of .lumen–a start-up that builds glasses that help the blind live a better life.

In January 2023, the Forbes Under 30 in Europe and JA Worldwide Global Business Hall of Fame Laureate was granted a US patent for his invention of the glasses for the blind, leveraging artificial intelligence and computer vision to help the blind with mobility. Read more about his journey here.

Alumni Startup Weekend in Leuven, Belgium (24–26 February)

Over the 3 jam-packed days, 30 JA Alumni gathered in Leuven, Belgium to learn directly from founders, get insights on what it takes to scale to over 500 employees, and participate in workshops around product ideation, financing, and scaling startups. JA alumni visited DataCamp–the popular data science learning platform, and other startups around Leuven.

JA Alumni Europe Conference Vilnius 2023

For years now, the JA Alumni Conference has brought together a vibrant community of JA alumni from all corners of Europe and the world. Beginning in 2004 in Lithuania, this annual gathering has become a beloved tradition that JA Alumni Europe is eager to continue and enrich.

Last year’s JA Alumni Europe Conference at Strassbourg, France was attended by 250+ JA alumni from more than 50 countries. This year, from August 23–27, the JA Alumni Europe Conference will be held at Vilnius, Lithuania, with more guest speakers, entrepreneurs, and thought-leaders sharing their expertise and experience in making an impact in the world.

Get your tickets at gatheralumni.org.

JA Alumni Latvia Masterclasses

In a series of masterclasses leading up to a hackathon and networking event happening on February 28, JA Alumni Latvia invited Dāniels Bendiks and Reinis Nikulcevs to talk about becoming a leader in the industry. They will be sharing their experience in business, project development, and problem-solving skills from 7pm–9pm CET on February 7, 2023. Learn more about the event here.

Alumni Spotlight 🧐

Marcella Bertoluci: Winner of “I am JA” Video Contest at the JA Global Alumni Conference 2019

Marcella started a social project during high school to help the adoption process of children and teenagers that had little expectations of having a new family. She successfully helped with the adoption of 7 kids and the Brazillian government integrated the project into its official agenda.

Housekeeping 

• Apply to be a Youth Advisor.
• Join the Alumni Leadership Group on Gather.
• Schedule a call to talk about alumni chapter building.
• Email Sarah Rapp for potential partnerships + synergy.
• Access the new JA Alumni branding.
• Request brand transition assistance.