The Jewish Leadership Academy

Who is JLA? 📣We are leaders. 📚We are academically driven. 📈We are motivated. 🇮🇱We are proud Zionists. 💙We care about each other. So the question is… are you JLA? To learn more about JLA, prospective students and parents  are invited to our campus on Sunday, December 17 for our last Open House of the year. Register here: https://lnkd.in/efwGxjAc

As our campus quiets down for the summer, we’re struck by just how much we’ve accomplished and how far we’ve come. Listen to Rabbi Dr. Gil Perl’s reflections on the end of the year. Wishing you a peaceful Shabbat and restful summer. Shabbat Shalom!

We ended the school year on a high with a meaningful professional development day for our faculty and staff! Some of the highlights included our faculty-led sessions like cooking with Chef Seth, FabLab fun with Ms. Gurgel, and painting with Ms. Hildebidle. Days like yesterday are incredibly valuable, they allow our staff time to pause and reflect on the past year, while also visioning and preparing for the upcoming year ahead. But maybe more than that, our professional development days are a time for our staff to connect with one another on a personal and professional level. Wishing our teachers a restful summer break, thank you for all you do!

Moving our bodies and helping others, that’s what our Ninja Course is all about! Last Friday, we debuted our Ninja Course which was designed with the help of Michael Neuman, founder of The Jewish Inspiration Foundation. JIF’s mission is an incredible one: To inspire and empower Jewish children, teens and adults with physical challenges to compete in extreme athletic competitions. Similar to the values we try and instill in our students at JLA, athletes in JIF also learn perseverance, grit, the value of hard work, dreaming big, and so much more. We are so inspired by the work of JIF and are excited to share our Ninja course with their athletes in the months and years to come!

It is no secret that our students put in long days this year while trying to balance rigorous academics, extracurriculars, sports, and their social life, all while adjusting to a new school. The JLA Awards were created in an effort to acknowledge their hard work and dedication, as well as to honor and recognize outstanding students and athletes who excelled in specific areas and subjects and who have demonstrated the JLA values while doing so. Congratulations, Jaguars! Thank you for being leaders in our school.

In true JLA fashion, our students spent their last day of class not focused on themselves, but centered around service to others, creating 1000+ sandwiches for those in need, and 100+ care packages for Holocaust survivors. THIS is what our Service Entrepreneurship Program is all about... and it's just the beginning!

Introducing… Our newest Jaguars! Last Thursday’s New Student Social was a peek of the fun to come for our incoming students. From icebreakers to sports, art activities to ninja course shenanigans, there was something for everyone. It was beautiful to see the beginnings of friendships blossom, we can’t wait for the memories to come this year!

Join us in welcoming our new Associate Director of Development, Ms. Sabrina B.! Sabrina is a Philadelphia native, but moved to Naples, Florida at the age of six, and later attended the University of Florida, graduating with a  BS in Psychology. After college, Sabrina moved to Los Angeles and began her career as a client success manager in the technology industry, and has spent the last seven years developing client relationships in the start-up space, seeing multiple companies through rapid and exponential growth, software launches, and rounds of funding. Her clients varied in industries, from financial institutions to healthcare, VC firms to manufacturers, and government to fellow software companies. Most recently Sabrina led a team of sixteen as the Director of Customer Success and Director of Partnerships at Fulcrum, a Minneapolis based software company.   Due to her passion for Jewish education and for Israel, Sabrina is excited to return to Florida and apply the skills she has gained in the for-profit world to a cause that is nearer and dearer to her heart: ensuring that  the Jewish children of our community, our future, receive the very  best education possible. In her free time, she loves spending time with her husband and family, solving puzzles — jigsaw, crossword, or otherwise — and winning during game nights with friends.

After receiving the Stanley C. Meyers Presidents’ Leadership Award at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Annual Meeting, Daniel and Gisela Ades challenged the audience to find an issue they are passionate about and dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to it, just as they have done for JLA.

Congratulations are in order for our 2024 JLA Junior Honor Society and JLA Honor Society Inductees! Last night we had the joy of inducting 39 students into various Honor Societies including the JLA Honor Society, Math National Honor Society (National Mu Alpha Theta),  JLA Hebrew Honor Society, National English Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society. These students embody commitment, integrity, grit, and are shining examples of academic excellence and leadership in action. We are so incredibly proud of them!