Mount Alvernia High wins 2020 Scotiabank/Junior Achievement innovation challenge

A team of five students from the Mount Alvernia High School were named champions of the 5th annual Scotiabank National Innovation Camp 2020.

The competition was coordinated by Junior Achievement Jamaica (JAJ).

During the competition, which was hosted online, twenty one teams of high school students from fourteen schools presented their ideas based on the 2020 challenge theme “The use of technology to solve the issue of social distancing at banks due to COVID-19”.

The other Montego Bay-based high school, the Heinz Simonitsch School, placed second followed by York Castle High School from St. Ann.

Mount Alvernia proposed an 'Electronic Money Management Assistant', referred to as ‘EMMA’ that would be powered by artificial intelligence and used to assist all e-banking users including the elderly to complete transactions.

Deondra Sterling, captain of the winning team of students explained that the project required several hours of research and planning.

“We were aiming to creating a realistic solution that could possibly and positively impact the way that we do banking in Jamaica,” the 15-year-old shared.

 “We were extremely impressed with the level of thoughtfulness, research and attention to detail displayed by all the teams. The judges were also particularly impressed by the team from Mount Alvernia who displayed grit and strong critical thinking skills in the development of the idea presented," Yanique Forbes-Patrick, vice president, Public Affairs and Communications expressed.

Alphie Mullings-Aiken, president of Junior Achievement Jamaica, said that the annual National Innovation Camp provides an opportunity to gain insight and ideas from Jamaica’s youngest and most promising minds about how they see the future.

“We are grateful for Scotiabank’s continued investment in Junior Achievement which seeks to unearth the talents and promote innovativeness in our youth,” Mullings-Aiken said.

The other participating schools included the Roger Clarke High School, Vauxhall High School, Titchfield High School, Westwood High School, Morant Bay High School, Knox College, Cedar Grove Academy, The Queens School, Port Antonio High School, Johnathon Grant High School and the Rhodes Hall High School. 

Students from all competing schools were also exposed to Scotiabank’s ‘Road to Success’ Financial Literacy Programme - aimed at raising awareness among youth about the importance of managing their finances.

The programme has been rolled out in 16 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.

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