Partnering and Serving at Miami-Jackson High School

The Miami-Jackson Senior High School project began in 2000 with a small group of students in a Business Ethics class. Working in groups, these students began a mentoring project with students at Miami-Jackson Senior High School, a magnet school located in Brownsville/Liberty City, a low-income, predominantly African-American neighborhood of Greater Miami. Our students worked one-on-one with Miami-Jackson juniors on college preparation skills, helping them to prepare a strategic plan for college admission, study for the SAT, and compose entrance essays.

While Florida International University is an Institutional Member of the Academy for International Business (AIB), the college sought to engage the philanthropic arm of the AIB, the AIB Foundation, which places its emphasis on the funding of projects which advance the cause of international business. In the fall 2001 semester, the Miami-Jackson outreach project became the perfect avenue in which to do just this. The AIB Foundation already was working with the International Business magnet program at Miami-Jackson. In addition to providing a valuable opportunity for our students to get intimate connection with the practice of civic engagement, the initiative also provides an opportunity for our faculty to foster a closer relationship with the AIB at Miami-Jackson and to recruit these students for the college's international business programs. In addition to the college preparation and mentoring projects already in place, the college hopes to launch an introductory course in business and in international business at Miami-Jackson Senior High School.