Junior Achievement Honors Four Partners at The Spirit of JA Celebration

Junior Achievement of Northern New England (JAofNNE) will hold The Spirit of JA Celebration virtually, on Thursday, May 13, 2021 on the Hopin platform from 6:00-7:30 PM ET. The Spirit of JA Celebration is JAofNNE’s largest annual fundraising event and helps raise critical funds needed to prepare and inspire its local youth. Attended by more than 200 business leaders in Greater Boston, this year’s event will be an interactive virtual evening where the focus will be on discovering the JA mission.

The night will begin with an opportunity for some 1:1 video networking and exploration of the event’s interactive virtual sponsor booths and silent auction. Student emcees will kick-off the evening at 6:30 PM ET as attendees transition through four breakout rooms focused on a subset of JAofNNE’s most impactful programs. In addition to learning about JAofNNE’s programs, attendees will also hear from students and be able to ask questions, answer polls, etc. At the close of the program, four leaders who embody the spirit of community and commitment to youth education will be recognized. This year’s honorees will be Christine Barry, COO of Newfold Digital; Accenture & Avanade; Barry Smith, Senior Managing Director of State Street Global Advisors and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Global Institutional Group; and Lawrence High School.

Individual Spirit of JA Award recipient, Christine Barry, started her journey with Junior Achievement in Cincinnati, as a classroom volunteer, and then became a board member and Board Chair in 2006. In 2014, her family moved back to her hometown of Boston, MA and she joined JAofNNE’s board. From 2018-2020, Christine served as Board Chair. Christine is the true definition of a JA champion, supporting JAofNNE’s strategy and events, serving on board committees and engaging Endurance International Group (now Newfold Digital) employees to serve as volunteers and mentors in the classroom.

Accenture and Avanade, the Corporate Spirit of JA Award recipients are among JAofNNE’s key partners this year. Not only did they provide financial support, but the critical roles they played, as JAofNNE quickly pivoted their programs from in-person to virtual, given the unprecedented times of the pandemic, was invaluable. These partnerships have provided JAofNNE critical support in the conversion of their physical program materials to digital copies. Avanade’s pro bono technology assessment of JAofNNE provided an important technology road map, which was imperative to understanding applications, licensing, and hardware gaps that enhanced virtual program delivery and maximized hardware capabilities. At a time when the mission of Junior Achievement is critical for hard-hit, underrepresented, marginalized communities, these partnerships are instrumental in allowing JAofNNE to continue inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy.

The JA Alumni/ae Hall of Fame Inductee, Barry Smith, began his involvement with Junior Achievement while a student at Boston College High School when he participated in the JA Company Program, starting a business that built and sold trouble lights for cars. This successful endeavor earned the company second place in JA of Northern New England’s Final Pitch Competition. This experience imparted many lessons which served him well as he continued his education at Saint Anselm College, where he earned a BA in Financial Economics, and throughout his professional career. More recently, Barry has, for several years, hosted the JA Stock Market Challenge, which has been sponsored by State Street Global Advisors and held at their Boston office.

JAofNNE is excited to announce a new award, the JA School of the Year, which will be awarded to Lawrence High School (LHS). This new award will be given to one of JAofNNE’s school partners per year. JAofNNE and Lawrence High School’s initial partnership began four years ago, with minimal programming that has now grown to JA integration in LHS’s Business Pathway. This academic year alone, nearly 286 unique students have gone through five different JA programs across all three of JA’s pathways. Students in LHS’s RISE program partnered with JA for the first time this year, providing lessons on money, savings, and wants vs. needs to Special Education students. This level of partnership is what JAofNNE strives for in its impact communities and looks forward to expanding and continuing a strong partnership with Lawrence High School in the future.

“We look forward to celebrating the significant contributions Christine Barry, Accenture & Avanade, Barry Smith, and Lawrence High School have made to youth across Massachusetts and New Hampshire. They understand that investing in our youth today will result not only in their success, but also in the improvement of our communities, our region and our country,” said Radhames Nova, President & CEO of Junior Achievement of Northern New England.
JAofNNE invites you to join them on Thursday, May 13th from 6:00-7:30 PM ET, to honor the 2021 Spirit of JA Award recipients; Register today: https://hopin.com/events/spirit-of-ja-celebration-2021

About Junior Achievement of Northern New England (JAofNNE)
Junior Achievement's (JA) mission is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy. JA was founded in 1919 in Springfield, MA and Junior Achievement of Northern New England (JAofNNE) was incorporated in Boston in 1950. JAofNNE provides economic mobility and opportunity to youth in 10 Massachusetts counties and the state of New Hampshire. JAofNNE focuses on teaching youth from Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Quincy, Somerville, Worcester and Manchester NH to effectively manage their finances, build critical skills for the workforce, develop their entrepreneurial mindset and increase their confidence to prepare them to succeed in our global economy and help them break the cycle of poverty. Visit https://newengland.ja.org for more information.

Download PDF