Manage Your Money.. Manage Your Gift.

The show went on this morning when the Charles Hyatt Foundation visited Boys’ Town All Age School and held this months “Straight Talk” session.  The topic this month was how to manage money. The students had a wonderful time coming up with ideas about managing their money from giving it to family members to investing it. Unfortunately Ms. Anika Smith, of Mayberry Investments, was not able to make it. (we wish her a speedy recovery).

We went through different scenarios that allows for managing money. We had ideas from buying and selling goods such as onions and other ground provisions, to buying many houses and renting them out. We described investment schemes and how bad they are to everyday life in Jamaica. We were then treated by a surprise visitor, Ms. Yanique Taylor from “Junior Achievement Jamaica” who explained their program of working with students from age 5 to 20 on how to be effectively positive business people. She also explained the process of becoming an entrepreneur and what types of entrepreneur there are.

The day was filled with positivity and as we were closing, we were joined by the school principal, Ms. Sylvia Banks, who announced that for the first time, a Boys’ Town student had won the Western Sports essay competition. Now, that is extremely exciting, especially since a year and a half ago the students literacy levels were at 32%. Now it’s at 72% and 90% of the student now have either ‘almost mastery’ or ‘mastery’ in the numeracy exam. Quite excited about that.

Thank you Ms. Taylor for jumping right in and making yourself comfortable. We look forward to the partnership between Junior Achievement Jamaica and Boys’ Town.