July–August 2023 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

Traveling to meet with JA colleagues from around the world brings me so much energy and fills me with hope for our future. Through my travels over the last few weeks, I’ve spent time in three of our six JA regions, including JA Europe’s Gen-E event in Istanbul, Türkiye (an event that includes Company of the Year finals for high-school students, Start-Up finals for college-age students, alumni events, and sessions for teachers); the Junior Achievement USA National Leadership Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, USA; and the JA Americas Board Meeting and Leadership Summit in Miami, Florida, USA.

The OneJA spirit permeated these events, with JA staff from over 40 countries coming together at Gen-E in Istanbul, JA staff from the US region winning awards to travel to global events, and JA staff in the Americas region traveling to Miami from over 15 countries to learn from each other. At each event, there was a sense that we are all part of one global community of JA associates with shared values and a willingness to work across boundaries to help young people realize their full potential. 

In less than three months, we’ll all be coming together for GLC. You can register for GLC Virtual, October 23–26, our free, four-day conference focusing on functional training. We’ll have one day each for learning experiences and technology, organizational resiliency, alumni and people development, and amplifying our global brand, with risk-management and governance mixed into sessions each of the four days. Although we started GLC Virtual in 2021 to address the global pandemic, we saw the strong benefits for the network of continuing this event, namely saving on travel costs, reducing our carbon footprint, and creating a more flexible GLC. Once again, we’ll be offering one or more credentials (badges), in which you’ll build skills in a particular area or track.

In addition, we’re bringing back in-person GLC, this time in Bangkok, Thailand, the first GLC in JA’s history that will be in Asia-Pacific, our largest region with the highest youth population in the world. This event for JA leadership will focus on magnifying JA’s work in the four areas of our strategic focus: accelerating digital, empowering the underserved, cultivating partnerships, and strengthening OneJA. Given our recent Nobel Peace Prize nomination, we will also come together as a global fellowship to discuss what it will take to build a more peaceful world and how your JA location can participate.

Of course, as in past GLCs, one of the main events will be the gala in which we present GLC awards honoring both the individuals who have contributed to the organization and JA offices that best exemplify innovation, collaboration, and resilience.

  • The JA Bold Tech Award (previously the JA High-Tech Award) recognizes a JA location that has developed bold-tech learning experiences for students, including virtual or augmented reality, artificial intelligence, an interactive website and app, and other immersive and innovative uses of technology.

  • The JA Access Award (previously the JA Low-Tech Award) recognizes JA locations that develop low-tech or no-tech learning experiences for students who don’t have reliable internet access.

  • The JA Alumni Engagement Award recognizes a JA location that has developed robust alumni strategies, including tracking of, communication with, and engagement projects for JA alumni.

  • The JA Activator Award recognizes the JA location that best activates learning experiences and ideas developed by others within JA.

  • And the all-new JA Brand Amplification Awards recognize JA locations that have extended and amplified the JA brand most effectively, through a marketing campaign, social-media post, ad, video, booklet, report, speech, article, website, poster, or other marketing collateral.

  • In addition, the JA Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a JA chief executive who has significantly contributed to the growth and impact of JA learning experiences in his or her country, while the Soraya Salti Award—named in memory of the extraordinary woman who founded INJAZ Al-Arab—recognizes a JA visionary who pushes boundaries to move JA forward and bring systematic change to a country or region.

Have you decided which award(s) you’re applying for? If you’re on the fence about applying for an award for your JA office or for yourself, my advice is to go for it! It doesn’t take long to complete the application. But time is running out . . . most applications are due next month in September. I can’t wait to see what you all have to share.

Until next time,
Asheesh