Heritage High School Senior Wins National Contest

By  //  September 11, 2014

RECOGNIZED FOR WORK ON JOBS PROGRAM

Mayor William Capote presented Heritage High School Senior Jonathan Shepherd with a new iPad mini for his role in the city’s inaugural Juniors to Jobs program. (Image for SpaceCoastDaily.com)
Mayor William Capote, left, presented Heritage High School Senior Jonathan Shepherd with a new iPad mini for his role in the city’s inaugural Juniors to Jobs program. At right is Harry Ericson. (Image for SpaceCoastDaily.com)

PALM BAY, FLORIDA — Mayor William Capote presented Heritage High School Senior Jonathan Shepherd with a new iPad mini for his role in the city’s inaugural Juniors to Jobs program. 

Jonathan Shepherd is currently a senior at Heritage High School and plays on the varsity football team.
Jonathan Shepherd is currently a senior at Heritage High School and plays on the varsity football team.

According to Palm Bay’s public information coordinator Yvonne Martinez, Shepherd was selected from a pool of hundreds of students from around the country participating in summer youth jobs programs, part of which involved completing several modules within the U.S. Conference of Mayors DollarWise program.

DollarWise is designed to teach students financial literacy and responsibility through education and practical applications.  The modules Shepherd completed included exercises in creating good money habits, lessons in financial planning, savings, budgeting and more.

Shepherd also successfully completed a 5-week summer paid internship with FreeWavz, a Melbourne company that creates wire-free earphones with built-in heart rate and fitness monitoring.

Harry Ericson
Harry Ericson

“Jonathan was exceptional and we were really glad to have him,” said Harry Ericson, president of Free Wavz. 

“He came at a critical time when we were developing and marketing the product and helped us out a great deal with online research.  “It was a great experience for me,” Shepherd said.  “I learned it takes a lot of work to get the reward at the end, but it’s worth it.” 

Shepherd is currently a senior at Heritage High School and plays on the varsity football team.  He joined the Juniors to Jobs program in hopes of gaining work experience to ultimately pursue a career in physical therapy.

He was among nearly 30 incoming high-school seniors employed for the summer.

The Juniors to Jobs program was a partnership among the city of Palm Bay, CareerSource Brevard, and the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce.