August 2017 - Johnson Scholarship Foundation

Founder’s Legacy Continues Through Scholarships for UPS Employees’ Children

August 18, 2017/in Lady Hereford, News

Volunteering with the Special Olympics has given Shelby Leonard of Fort Myers, Florida, a glimpse into her future.

The Florida SouthWestern State College student hopes to become a pediatric nurse “to help all types of children, especially those with special needs,” she says.

Shelby recently wrote a thank-you letter to the Board of Directors of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation for awarding her a scholarship to help her achieve her goals. As the daughter of a UPS employee in Florida, she was eligible to apply for a scholarship through the JSF Scholarship Program.

This year, the program awarded a total of $293,500 to 53 new recipients, including Shelby. In addition, 146 students received renewal awards totaling $873,400.

From 1992, when the program began, to 2016, the Johnson Scholarship Foundation awarded more than $18.4 million for scholarships for more than 1,200 students.

This core program was dear to JSF founder Theodore R. Johnson, who joined United Parcel Service as an industrial engineer in 1923. He later became the first personnel manager and vice president for industrial relations before his retirement in 1952. He and his wife, Vivian, believed strongly that higher education paves the way to a better life.

Today, the Foundation that is their legacy funds a number of programs that support disadvantaged students, students with disabilities and Indigenous Peoples.

As a core program, this scholarship program receives annual support from the Foundation. It is administered by Scholarship Management Services, a division of Scholarship America.

The scholarship is for dependent children of full-time or permanent part-time UPS employees and UPS retirees in Florida.

The recipients attend schools throughout Florida and are studying a variety of subjects. Many of the students are active in campus activities and are gaining work experience through internships.

Samuel Alfonso, a student at the University of South Florida, recently spent the summer completing an internship with a civil engineering firm in Tampa.

“I have learned so much over the past couple of months about how civil engineering really works,” he wrote. “I have helped produce several sets of plans for the drainage division, and have even led proposal efforts on a job issued by the Florida Department of Transportation.

“None of this would have been possible without the support of you all, and I am so thankful that I have your backing for my final two semesters of school.”

Another scholarship recipient, Kassidy Wells, aspires to become a nurse. She is a student at Rasmussen College in New Port Richey.

“While working and going to school full time, this scholarship has let me focus more on school and stress less about my finances,” she wrote. “I plan to follow your footsteps and one day give back to the community as you graciously have done for me.”

For more information about the scholarship program, visit www.jsf.bz.

Leading by Example: The Five Conditions of Collective Impact

August 11, 2017/in News, Stacey Watson

Collective Impact initiatives are difficult to describe until they begin to crystallize into action, require an immense amount of consideration, intention and thoughtfulness and can feel frustratingly slow at times. So why on earth would a group of stakeholders, usually organizations and communities already heavily taxed with work, take on this messy process?

Perhaps the answer is because we all have learned that working independently … doesn’t work. With Collective Impact we have an opportunity to not only create systemic change, but to find ways to elevate and support the work of each stakeholder involved.

Understanding the process of Collective Impact for some can take a moment simply because competition is embedded in our culture even among organizations and entities that by their very nature exist to uplift others. It is hard for us to imagine that non-profit, civic, faith-based, education and community partners could come together around one common goal long enough to make permanent and systemic change. However all over the country communities are suspending disbelief long enough to allow for the necessary growth process of such a project to make significant change. We are seeing this in the Achieve Palm Beach County initiative currently underway in Florida.

Achieve Palm Beach County is a Collective Impact initiative that has been in community planning sessions since 2015 and has recently reached the point where the initiative is ready to begin implementation. The Johnson Scholarship Foundation is a supporter of this initiative. Achieve PBC’s mission is to ensure an integrated and effective system of supports from middle school through post-secondary that empowers Palm Beach County students for career success. By 2023 this collective wants to have at least 65 percent of PBC high school graduates completing college or career preparation education within six years of graduation.

The Georgetown Center on Education and Workforce predicts that of all new jobs created in Florida by 2020, 68 percent will require a post-secondary credential. In the School District of Palm Beach County, only 42.3 percent of all graduates and 31.5 percent of low-income graduates are predicted to receive a post-secondary credential within six years of high school graduation. The School District of Palm Beach County has a clear strategic plan which outlines the significance of post-secondary success and was a great informer as Achieve began. Over 160 stakeholders from universities, faith based organizations, government agencies, non-profits, the school district, community groups and human service organizations came together create a plan for addressing the county’s future labor needs and the goal of every student having the opportunity to access post-secondary education.

To accomplish this goal the United Way of Palm Beach County is serving as the backbone organization thus providing a credible and organized infrastructure to the collective’s strategies and staff. Like every Collective Impact initiative, Achieve Palm Beach County must ensure that the five conditions developed by John Kania and Mark Kramer in 2011 are met in order for there to be systems change across a community.

The Five Conditions developed by Kania and Kramer are as follows:

Common Agenda: All participants share a common agenda for change that includes a common understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving the problem through agreed upon actions.
Shared Measurement: All participating organizations agree on the ways success will be measured and reported. A short list of common indicators is used for learning and improvement.
Mutually Reinforcing Activities: A diverse set of stakeholders, typically across sectors, coordinate a set of differentiated activities through a mutually reinforcing plan of action.
Continuous Communication: All players engage in frequent and structured communication to build trust, assure mutual objective and create common motivation.
Backbone Support: Staff dedicated to the initiative provide ongoing support by guiding the initiative’s vision and strategy, supporting the aligned activities, establishing shared measurement practices, building public will and mobilizing resources.

This framework sets the stage for rules of engagement as communities begin to work together in unprecedented ways to tackle some of the seemingly overwhelming issues that can affect our lives and will determine if the generations of the future are simply surviving or thriving. As organizations and adults involved in Collective Impact work, we are learning a new way to think about how to create a better world, communicate with each other, incorporate and validate differing experiences and streamline funding sources to make a larger impact without diminishing services. As stated above, this work can be messy. We are indoctrinated into a certain way of operating that takes time to unravel. We have organizational fears around autonomy. In the non-profit and education sectors, where we are used to competing for the same resources, we are learning how to work with each other in trusting ways that evoke all of the natural progressions and obstacles of change. The work it takes to move a community in an agreed upon direction allows adults across many sectors the opportunity to lead by example in our ability to collaborate for something much bigger than any of us could accomplish alone. The Collective Impact structure allows not only for macro level change truly reflective of community goals, but reveals the best in who we are and what we can achieve together.

3 Things I’ve Learned From the Seven Generation Money Management Game

August 4, 2017/in Levi Esquerra, News

We all know that games can be fun, even educational. But what about life changing?

Seven Generation Money Management (7G MM) developed by the Center for American Indian Economic Development at Northern Arizona University with support from the Johnson Scholarship Foundation is a hands-on financial literacy game targeted toward Native American youth to increase their money management skills and to give them a basic understanding of investing, opening a bank account, purchasing a car, renting an apartment, buying a house and other life skills.

As of today, CAIED has hosted 68 7G MM workshops/trainings and has had more than 1,600+ participants. Thus, I thought I would share three things I have learned from 7G MM and how it has impacted my life.

#1 Life Happens!!!!

The one thing I have seen and also experienced is that life happens. In 7G MM, life also happens. Let’s say you need to buy a refrigerator, the air conditioner goes out and needs to be repaired, or the stove stops working and needs to be replaced. Yep, life happens in the game and in life. All three of these events happened to me within 10 days. At the time I was grateful to have had an emergency fund and it was less of a hindrance to replace and/or repair these items. However, where is my emergency fund now ….

#2 Investments

Growing up, I did not know much about the stock market or investments outside of establishing and maintaining a savings account. In the game, participants have an opportunity to make investments. Some make money and some lose money. A couple of years ago we did a family investment project. I met up with my brother, who has been involved in investing for years. He gave my wife, my 11-year-old and me a quick overview and then we were off to play our own investing game. I gave my daughter $100 and told her she could invest it in anything she wanted. She decided on Blue Buffalo. Later that day she was talking to her aunt and her aunt asked her what she did that day. She proudly said, “I bought stocks!” Her aunt replied, “Why did you buy socks?” She looked at her aunt and was very determined. “I bought stocks. I own Blue Buffalo, so whenever you buy dog food, buy Blue Buffalo, because I own part of the company.” Today we buy Blue Buffalo!

#3 Moving Out of Your Family Home

In the game participants are challenged to move out, whether to go to school or to experience life. My oldest daughters are now going to college. My wife and I decided to buy a second home that they could live in while going to school. That is where the rest of my emergency fund went (toward the down payment). I have found that this is a forced savings account with the headaches of being a landlord. The first year we had a pipe burst and the whole basement was flooded by a rain storm. Fun times, but the property continues to rise in value.

Finally, your life is going to change and so will your goals. Whether it is going to school, changing a major, to having a family with kids or changing professions, just remember life is a present. Live it!