St. Petersburg College, Junior Achievement announce partnership

St. Petersburg College and Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay leaders unveiled a new partnership Tuesday at an event at the SPC Gibbs Campus in St. Petersburg. 

Students who participate in Junior Achievement’s 3DE Schools program can now receive 12 credits towards an Associate of Science in Business Administration degree.  

Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay, which serves 12 counties, develops initiatives for K-12 students that focus on topics such as financial literacy, entrepreneurship and career readiness. The 3DE Schools program, a national effort created by Junior Achievement USA in 2015, gives high school students an opportunity to interact with local business executives. This allows them to learn more about leadership skills, solve real-world problems and explore career opportunities. 

These credits will not only be offered to Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay 3DE participants, but young people who are enrolled in the program through sister organizations across the country. 

“This is a historical achievement that we couldn’t be more excited about,” Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay’s chief development officer Christina Roberts explained to the Catalyst. The initiative is an “integrated instructional model” that students participate in throughout all four years of their high school experience. 

Freshman and sophmores work on case challenges sponsored by national and local businesses. Juniors create and market their own businesses in collaboration with partners such as the University of South Florida Nault Center for Entrepreneurship. 

To culminate the program, seniors are required to participate in a consultancy project that benefits a real company. 

“SPC leaders evaluated that curriculum and decided that if a student successfully graduates, they will automatically be able to receive four courses’ worth of credit,” she added. “Three years ago, SPC College of Business dean Emmanuel Hernández-Agosto reached out to me and said ‘Christina, I saw an article in the St. Pete Catalyst on the 3DE model and I’d love to learn more.’” 

Roberts explained that Hernández-Agosto began to mentor 3DE students. Eventually, SPC became the recipient of a senior consultancy project during the 2023-2024 academic year. The young participants developed ideas on how to increase enrollment rates through recruiting international students.  

“We saw the opportunity and had the vision to say ‘there’s no need for making the students go through the same course work when they have already demonstrated for the past four years that they have the talent and capacity,’” Hernández-Agosto said at the Tuesday event. “This partnership was something we saw as an opportunity to give back and be a true partner in the community.” 

He added that providing 3DE students with college credit can help them enter “the market faster” and can save them “time and money.” 

Implemented in more than 75 educational institutions across 13 states, the 3DE program was first introduced in the Tampa Bay area in 2020. St. Petersburg, Dunedin, Hillsborough and Chamberlain High Schools were the inaugural institutions. Currently, six schools in Pinellas County offer the instructional model. 

Pinellas County Schools superintendent Kevin Hendrick explained at the event that collaborating with Junior Achievement was attractive because it provided an opportunity to help students gain “competencies” that could be beneficial in any industry. He added that the new partnership with SPC can have an “economic impact.” If graduating high school seniors already have credit, this can make them see “college as an opportunity.” It can also make them more prepared to “contribute” to society. 

“If there are other students who want to come to the area and enroll at SPC, we would love to see that,” Roberts said. “We want Tampa Bay to continue to be a thriving ecosystem and we want to make sure that the talent that’s available to every industry is filled with students who are ready.” 

Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay website