WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Twenty students from throughout Palm Beach County each were awarded $1,000 and a laptop Saturday morning at the annual Suits For Seniors, I Think I Can scholarship breakfast.
Community leaders and sponsors honored the program participants at Manatee Lagoon.
Suits for Seniors is an eight-week program geared toward teaching students about financial literacy, career planning and professional development.
"I hope each participant understands that its their role to change to community," Jervonte Edmonds, who founded Suits for Seniors, said. "What we do is plant a seed for them to grow into the leaders that change the world for the next generation.
The career academy is at 10 of 11 Title 1 schools in Palm Beach County.
"We teach our kids leadership financial literacy, how to get to college, how to get a career, anything related to post-secondary success."
The program has rates of 100% high school graduation, 95% college enrollment and 75% post-secondary graduation.
Juan Maldonado a Palm Beach State College student, said: "It taught me lessons like financial literacy, how to invest, how to make a budget, how to invest, how to save assets over liabilities as well as academically it gave me the opportunity to find scholarships to be able to pay my way through school to pay for my books and tuition stuff like that so I have a lot of money saved up."