Junior Achievement of Oregon & SW Washington Partners with Project LEDO

April 16, 2021

Over a video bright with clip-art hearts and stars, a little girl takes a breath and says, as clearly as she can, “Thank you, Teacher Sylvette!” You can hear the smile in her voice as she sends a virtual thank you card to the woman who has been teaching her and her fellow first-graders about families and finance.

Sylvette Benetti is Project LEDO’s Outreach Program Manager and, for five weeks, she has taught a JA In-Class Program as a volunteer with Junior Achievement of Oregon & SW Washington. She delivered JA Our Families with a virtual classroom of first graders from Lents Elementary. The program teaches kids about families, neighborhoods, money, jobs, and needs and wants to should foundations of how families and communities thrive. Sylvette had a great time going through the activities with the English- and Spanish-speaking students.

In one memorable lesson, the kids shared their screens to show off family flags laden with pictures of themselves, siblings and parents. Students sent Sylvette recorded ‘thank you’ notes after the class ended, including the little girl’s recorded thank you over stars and hearts and a tie-dye heart that dissolved into butterflies.

Even over a call, the students’ enthusiasm to talk about their families and hear about how businesses help their communities by providing for everyone’s needs and wants came through. Junior Achievement’s early lessons on finances and community help teach students about the basics of personal finance and inspire kids to consider their futures.

Project LEDO works with marginalized K-8 students in Portland’s Title I schools, creating mentor-led opportunities for students to encourage them to explore STEM and to foster self-confidence, critical thinking and leadership skills.

The executive director of Project LEDO, Fidel Ferrer, says, “As one who found himself at a disadvantage growing up in Cuba, now I see the importance of creating a better everyday environment for our children. Sometimes it only takes someone to believe in you to change the fate of your journey.”

Sylvette says, "Being intentional with teaching our BIPOC students about financial fundamentals is critical not only to the success of their personal lives by setting a foundation to create generational wealth, but to the success of the communities around them. The more we uplift our underrepresented students, the stronger, more prosperous economies we are going to have in our communities because they are going to make an impact."

Project LEDO and Junior Achievement (JA) are partnering to expand financial literacy education to more Title I elementary schools in Portland as a part of our shared mission to empower underserved youth with life and career skills.  In partnership with Project LEDO and Title I schools, JA is helping low-income and underrepresented students become empowered, self-sufficient adults capable of managing finances, exploring and succeeding in their career goals and creating thriving communities of the future.

About Junior Achievement of Oregon & SW Washington

Junior Achievement of Oregon and SW Washington (JA) inspires and prepares young people to succeed in a global economy through volunteer-delivered, experiential programs for K-12 students that promote work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Established locally in 1950, JA is an affiliate of Junior Achievement USA, which has worked for over a century to empower young people to own their economic success. Visit www.jaorswwa.org for more information.

JA of Oregon and SW Washington is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, and wholly reliant on the financial and volunteer support of individuals, foundations, and businesses. Their hands-on experiential programs served nearly 30,000 students from the region in 2019-20, 45% of which came from low-income families.

About Project LEDO

Project LEDO’s mission is to inspire young, underrepresented marginalized BIPOC students to be science and technology leaders. At our hearts, we want to encourage innovation and foster well-rounded life capabilities such as self-confidence, communication, and leadership among our BIPOC community of students in the field of STEM.