Exame Magazine Interviews JA Worldwide CEO Asheesh Advani

June 12, 2020

Exame, the Portuguese-language magazine that specializes in economics, business, politics, recently interviewed JA Worldwide CEO Asheesh Advani to discuss how the recent crises the world has faced may actually expand youth-entrepreneurship opportunities.

The São Paulo, Brazil–based publication, with offices in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, New York City, which is also published in Portugal and Mozambique, sat down with Asheesh in mid-May. “What’s unique about JA is that our programs are experience-based,” Asheesh said during the interview, “is that JA students not only learn from a book, but also practice entrepreneurship.”

The article looks at JA’s #KeepLearning initiative, which launched in March to give students, parents, and teachers access to JA programs in a digital format that’s well suited to the COVID crisis . . . and beyond. JA’s transformation from face-to-face, paper-based learning was already underway before the pandemic. But the speed and urgency of that transformation changed dramatically once the virus kept one billion students out of school, globally.

Also interviewed was Bety Tichauer, CEO of JA Brazil, who spoke on a number of topics, including the JA Brazil’s success in moving volunteering from a face-to-face activity to one that thrives online. Bety introduced Exame to Ja alumnus Pedro Englert, founder of the Startse business school, who participated in JA in the mid 1990s and is excited about the future of online learning. “Knowledge today is much more accessible,” Pedro says. “It is in the palm of your hand.” Bety also pointed out, however, the very real challenge of reaching students without high-speed broadband.

“We have always seen a great deal of resilience among young people,” Asheesh said in the article. “They overcome difficulties. Now, this experience will mark them forever. They will remember this time not because of how we lived through the crisis, but how the crisis changed the world.”

Read the entire article (which will self-translate into English if you’re using Google Chrome).