2018 Cycle Open For Nominations


JMB Award is delighted to open our fourth award cycle. 

We invite you to nominate eligible students within your school or community organization and to share this information with others working with high school students.

Nominations are accepted until March 1, 2018. Upon receiving nominations, JMB Award will contact nominated students to invite them to complete our application process, open until March 15, 2018. All finalists will be interviewed in April or early May. Recipients will be named in late May.

Contact fran [at] jmbaward [dot] com with questions. 

Nominate >>

Revving Up For 2018

It's wild to think we're opening our fourth cycle in January 2018. When we first kicked around the idea of the JMB Award, we practiced controlled enthusiasm. We were uncertain how far our idea would take us and how far we could take our idea.

In the past three years, we've gone from supporting one student each cycle to supporting four. We've added a travel stipend, financial capability building, prep test support—and so much more. Now, looking into 2018, we're revving up! We're crafting a three-year report so we can share our growth, achievements and impact in the categories below. For now, here's a glimpse at what we're working on.

Capacity Building

  • Seeking fiscal sponsorship. We're in the process of securing an agreement to operate under CultureWorks' nonprofit umbrella. That'll allow us to share their exempt status with donors and seek institutional support as well. Through this agreement, JMB Award also retains CultureWorks' HR staff support, marketing and fundraising expertise, legal tools, and insurance. We'll be informed of their decision in January.
  • Planning a strategic retreat. We realize we need concentrated time to discuss and refine our mission and vision. We'll hold a strategic retreat in 2018 to examine our impact to date and to map our desired impact for the next three to five years. 

Mentoring Program

  • Recruiting a diverse, talented group of mentors. In anticipation of granting awards to more students in 2018, we've filled out our mentor slate and recruited mentors from diverse personal and professional backgrounds. These women come from within education, the arts, and journalism.
  • Providing necessary training. In mid-November, we held training to further develop the skills of our current mentors. The focus was on building trust quickly, mentoring across long distances, recognizing our value, and preparing our mentees for summer work and internships. In March, we'll hold onboarding training for our new mentors to acquaint them with our mission and our approach.
  • Applying for technical assistance. The National Mentoring Resource Center provides technical assistance to youth mentorship programs. JMB Award is seeking their support to help us further improve and expand our training, matching, and evaluating efforts. We'll be informed of their decision soon.

Intergenerational Support 

  • Hosting a winter dinner. We're hosting a winter dinner for recipients and their mentors in early 2018. These events give us the opportunity to catch up, share stories, network, and celebrate. At this particular event, we'll return the "notes to self" recipients wrote at our summer event and see how their words of self-encouragement speak to them now.
  • Identifying our community. Through our network we've been able to offer informational interviews, provide employment, help restore medical insurance coverage, and get a leg-up on a coveted internship. For 2018, we plan on creating a process for more systematically identifying our community and the ways they can support our recipients. 

Who Doesn't Love Care Packages?

Remember when you were a first-year college student? So do we!

There's the loneliness. The stress. The desire for the comforts of home, whatever home may mean.

That's why we created the JMB Award Care Package and shipped one to each of our recipients this fall. A virtual hug in a box, the items were collectively curated by our mentors and included the practical and the indulgent. Toward the latter end of the scale was a signature Jill item: Snickers®. Jill marked bad days as "six-Snickers bars days." We included six, but went with the fun size. Moderation, amiright?! 

 

JMB Award Care Package

Summer Retreat

We had a jam-packed agenda for our first summer retreat with recipients and their mentors: 

  • Budgeting basics
  • Transitioning to college
  • Building a strong mentoring relationship
  • Networking and risk-taking

Through it all, personal stories and experiences took center stage.

Everyone had tips on how to stretch a dollar, and those entering their first year of college got additional pro tips on how to afford costly college books and late-night pizza ordering.

Money-saving wasn't the only thing on recipients' minds. Many benefited from a Q&A session with former recipients, especially as they discussed their transition to a rural campus with less pavement and diversity.

When our board joined later in the day, recipients heard their stories of perseverance, taking risks, accepting help, and leaping into the prepared-for unknown. This last session struck the deepest chord with our recipients, many of whom were reassured to learn "our path is not determined" and "everyone hits rock bottom in their life, and it's okay. It's about how you pick yourself back up." 

We couldn't say it better.

2017 Summer Retreat