Number 183 August 12, 2022 St. Louis
Justine PETERSEN Awarded $7,500 Grant from The Opportunity Trust to Develop High School Financial Education Curriculum
Justine PETERSEN is the proud recipient of a $7,500 grant from the St. Louis-based nonprofit The Opportunity Trust, whose mission is to “invest in educators and school systems eager to build the capacity required to make significant and measurable change.” The Opportunity Trust is working to ensure that every child in St. Louis is prepared to lead a life of choice and dignity.
JP’s Young Friends will apply the grant funds to develop a dynamic financial education curriculum geared to local St. Louis high school students. “The Young Friends group is excited and ready to educate the youth of tomorrow,” remarked Ronika Moody, Resource Development Manager at Justine PETERSEN.
Pictured are Ronika Moody and Yolanda Nelson of Justine PETERSEN.
JP Participates in Annual Urban Expo Back to School & Community Empowerment Festival
Several JP staffers and members of JP’s Young Friends group participated in the annual Urban Expo Back to School & Community Empowerment Festival this past weekend at the America’s Center in downtown St. Louis. Over 350 partners assembled to offer an array of resources to over 27,000 residents. Hosted by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis in conjunction with St. Louis Public Schools, the two day event also included a job fair featuring over 60 local companies.
Farewell Josh Stout, Our Self-Actualized Summer Intern
I want to be Josh Stout when I grow up. We at JP have been truly blessed (and note this expression is used in the most stringent of economy in this weekly publication) with working alongside Josh this summer – and learning from him. Josh lives up to his surname: he was the summer intern bold enough to tackle any task with determined rigor, all the while smiling. Josh helped – and excelled – at tasks ranging from marketing to credit building. He knew no boundaries.
Josh watched a documentary in his high school sociology class about incarceration and re-incarceration – and it changed his life. “This spiked a passion in me to help the community,” stated Josh. And a summer internship at JP seemed like a good fit – and it was. “The thing I found most rewarding was getting to see the impact that Justine PETERSEN has on the community,” noted Josh, “Anytime I made a phone call to a client to offer a new resource to them, I could hear pure joy in their voice as they talked about that resource or how helpful the resource would be.”
Josh will be a freshman at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville this fall majoring in Special Education. And: putting in a few hours of remote work for JP! Thanks Josh!
Birthday Blitz Keeps JP Office in Party Mode for Second Consecutive Week!
Without any opportunity to recover from our 25th Anniversary Block Party last Thursday, the JP office has come to resemble a non-stop party HQ, witnessing four birthdays in almost the same amount of days. HAPPY BIRTHDAY(S) TO GERLINDA “GIGI” RALLIEGH, CHLOE GAMBER, DOROTHY “SUGAH” BURTON AND JIM BOYLE!