TAMPA, Fla. — A program that gives high school students real-world experience working with businesses will graduate its first group of students at the end of this school year.

Junior Achievement’s 3DE program launched in 2020 and is now in nine schools across Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk counties.

The goal of the program is to provide economic opportunity to all students and prepare them for success beyond the classroom.

What You Need To Know

  • Junior Achievement's 3DE program allows students to work hand-in-hand with businesses

  • The program launched in 2020 and is now in nine Tampa Bay schools

  • Raymond James, Delta Airlines and UPS are among the 16 companies that partner with the program

  • At the end of this school year, the first cohort of 3DE students will graduate

Students in the cohort take what they learn in class to help businesses come up with solutions to issues they’re facing.

As part of the senior curriculum, students in their final year become consultants to one of the program’s business partners, which includes big names like Raymond James, Delta Airlines and UPS.

Kenyon Clarkson joined the 3DE program at St. Petersburg High School his freshman year and is now a senior. During his sophomore year, Clarkson and four other classmates won a national competition for their case study on Home Depot.

“I just always knew that I wanted to be a CEO or a boss,” Clarkson said. “We just learn so much, so many skills about reaching our goals or achieving whatever we want to achieve. I felt like 3DE is the best program that promotes that. When you think about high school before that, you don’t really see that too often.”

Clarkson and his classmates faced a lot of challenges, being the first cohort of 3DE students and starting during the pandemic. Teacher Nicole Jones has watched her students grow both academically and personally over the last four years.

“My main priority for them is to get it,” she said. “To be effective in it, to be authentic in it and to also show them my heart, so that they can understand that through all of this it’s really about them.”

The 3DE program helped Clarkson develop his confidence and leadership skills, which ultimately inspired him to start his own clothing brand. Clarkson officially launched Altruistic Collections in August and has been using social media to build a customer base.

When he’s not on the basketball court or keeping up with his studies, Clarkson is pressing T-shirts with the brand’s logo he designed.

“Orders just started rolling in drastically fast,” he said. “Now every day at school, I see probably three to four students that have maybe been customers. Sometimes it’s people I don’t even know. When I see it in the hallways, I’ll just be like ‘wow.’ It’s amazing.”

One day, Clarkson hopes to have a storefront on Rodeo Drive. He credits the 3DE program for teaching him everything he knows about creating and running a business.

“It has definitely created my own lane where I know no matter what, I have this where it’s mine and I can know how to properly expand,” he said.

But first, Clarkson will finish high school in May and then go to college, where he plans to study business.

Tampa Bay is one of the fastest-growing markets in the country for the 3DE program, according to Junior Achievement. By the start of next school year, a quarter of public high schools in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties will offer the curriculum.