Jessica Johnson
The Scholarship Academy

Personal Bio

Jessica Johnson is the Founder and Executive Director of The Scholarship Academy, a nonprofit organization that partners with schools and youth-serving organizations to help low-income/first-generation families create 4-year college funding strategies. As a recipient of over $200,00 in scholarships, she has been featured in Black Enterprise for her work empowering young people to pursue debt-free degrees. A Howard University graduate, Jessica authored, “The College Funding Toolkit”, a 4-step guide to navigating the private scholarship market. Since its founding, The Scholarship Academy has helped students claim nearly $50 million in private scholarships, and more than $1.6 billion in grants and university aid, earning her several national fellowships/awards including Echoing Green, the Ashoka Changemaker Award, and the Points of Light Foundation’s Civic Accelerator.

Project Description

The College Affordability Initiative is a unique opportunity for The Scholarship Academy to serve as a “financial aid consulting firm” to assist schools/organizations in Title I communities in building healthier financial aid cultures. This project represents an official “doubling down” of our most effective methodologies – our experiential financial aid training modules, our customized scholarship planning platform, and our community of local/state scholarship providers who “search” for black/latinx youth in The Scholarship Academy pipeline to offer college funding.