Junior Achievement of Memphis have teamed up with FedEx to produce the next generation of Memphis entrepreneurs. A new program between the two organizations will teach early-stage entrepreneurship education for elementary school students.
The new program, Startup Park by FedEx, will introduce 5th and 6th graders to a diverse range of minority- and women-owned businesses that are in the first stages of development.
“There’s simply no replacement for a student seeing someone who looks like them succeeding in business,” said Jason Campbell, Junior Achievement Board Member and VP of Operations and Ops
System Support for FedEx Custom Critical. “FedEx continues to invest in small, minority- and women-owned businesses in the region — and that includes doubling down on our investment in local youth through our strategic support of JA.”
Located in Junior Achievement’s new experiential learning center at 516 Tillman in Binghampton, the program will act as a “storefront” within Junior Achievement’s BizTown, where students partner with well-known businesses that are big parts of the global economy. Startup Park will aim to teach children the basics of starting a business, and how to engage partners that can help the business thrive.
“Children can’t be what they can’t see,” said Leigh Mansberg, president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South. “FedEx has been collaborating with us and, with their generous support, we’re excited to transform the narrative for thousands of future Black, brown, and women entrepreneurs across the 25-county area JA serves.
“Our long-term goals are to lay the foundation for a pipeline to entrepreneurship through high school and beyond,” continued Mansberg, “and also to see evidence that participants in Startup Park by FedEx are developing tangible, age-appropriate entrepreneurial ideas and solutions that can be supported within the local youth entrepreneur ecosystem.”