Sharneise Allen goes by many names, and many faces, in this exciting world of ours. To some, she is an architectural designer with an eye for making unusual buildings. To others, she is a dedicated educator and mentor, with a passion for social and architectural reform. To others, she is a mother of two. In all of her roles, Sharneise comes across as two things: first, she is a good person, looking to motivate and inspire others. Secondly, she is someone who appreciates the importance of reform and sees change for what it is – a necessary, vital constant in our existence.
For Sharneise, her role as an educator came unexpectedly. Following the infamous bank bailout crash of ‘09, Sharneise was forced to adapt her existing set of skills and her background as a successful architectural designer. She turned to teaching and found that, to her surprise, she enjoyed this role a great deal. She also learned during this time that “unfortunate circumstances can lead to undiscovered success”.
This helped her navigate the many crossroads and harsh winds that were to come, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Always, Sharneise moved with her eyes on the future, and with a strong focus on how she could use the present situation to make things better.
This led her, eventually, to founding Jus One Academy, an instructional professional certification program aimed at high school students.
“Jus means “your right”. We remind our students that it’s not just their responsibility to shape their futures but their right to form their educational experiences to benefit them.”
Currently, Jus One Academy offers its students six separate educational programs, including Design Thinking/Social Entrepreneurship, Event Planning, Sports Management, Ethical Hacking, Real Estate Development/Property Management and FIntech/Digital Currency.
“We support the core curriculum standards that are offered in the traditional school settings, we also provide students training in life skills, social-emotional intelligence, design thinking and financial literacy alongside our program offerings.”
Basically, what Jus One Academy does is give its students the freedom and the trust necessary for building their very own path in life, and following their passions. Although very new, Jus One Academy’s certification programs have been a roaring success.
Most recently, the Academy announced the Design Thinking & Social Entrepreneurship student certification pilot program. This will be an accelerated training program that allows students to learn not one, but two enviable certifications, highly coveted on the current job market. The program is aimed at high school juniors from across the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area, and will be running exclusively online, over an 8-week period.
In the course, students will learn to design and present a unique business plan, structure a project budget, job descriptions, etc. That’s the truly appealing thing about Jus One Academy – they’re teaching actually useful, necessary skills for the current job market, and as such, are a huge benefit for high school students and young people today.
“Many adults feel obliged to “let students go” once they reach 18 considering them to be adults, this is the time that many students need even more help to navigate a very unforgiving and confusing world.”