Entrepreneurship Comes To Schools One Year after Joe Issa Urged In A Blog

Model student and businessman Joe Issa who, in a May 2016 blog urged support for the idea of teaching entrepreneurship in schools, has hailed the recent announcement that it would be done come September, 2017.

According to the announcement, all Grade nine students in 168 high schools will study entrepreneurship as part of the school curriculum in the September 2017/18 academic year.

In an interview about the new development, Issa said the move will revolutionize the way society views school education, in terms of its ultimate utility value – to help find or create jobs.

Chairman Joe Issa with his Cool Team

“I have always believed that entrepreneurship can potentially change how we see education particularly, the traditional view of a means to a job upon leaving school.

“Now we know better, we should want more from a school education. We can redirect students’ mentality towards having greater knowledge and imagination, and wanting to change their future for the better, and by extension the Jamaican economy and society.

In the big picture we see a Jamaica facing enormous challenges, particularly competition, as we have to operate in a world without borders, with markets constantly changing and becoming increasingly competitive.

“That’s where entrepreneurship comes in. This means Jamaica has to be innovative and willing to take risks, otherwise we won’t be able to change the colour of the bottom line from red to black, let alone make the economy more competitive.

“So teaching entrepreneurship from an early age is a move that will grow a generation of innovative minds able and willing to establish new businesses and manage them properly knowing the risks involved,” said Issa, an economics and accounting major, who founded the Cool Group of over 50 companies.

In last year’s blog Issa equated the impact of teaching entrepreneurship in schools to getting two bites of the cherry,

“Firstly, we will have created the next generation of Jamaican entrepreneurs, not only to continue and build on the business landscape, but to modernize processes to international best practices; and secondly, with about half of school leavers going into business, this will not only reduce the competition for scarce jobs, but will add new jobs to the market,” Issa explained.

Stating that the move also has the potential to unlock investments, Issa says, “There is a saying that there is always more money than there are good projects, which means that if you have a good project, you will find the money to fund it, either from the bank, the government’s support fund to assist the growth of the small and medium size business sector, or private investors.”

Pointing out the importance of maintaining the highest standard of education in schools, he said, “We should continue to emphasize preparation for matriculation to higher education or top entry level jobs, both of which have been known to be used as a stepping stone for entry into business.”

 

Former LSE Student Picks Stable, Low Inflation to Raise Output and Productivity

Joe Issa, a former Student of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he founded his first charity to assist underprivileged Jamaican children, has said in an interview, that stable, low inflation best suit small island states like Jamaica with less resilience to economic shocks, stating it is the preferred choice for raising output and productivity.

Joey Issa

“You don’t want to go back to the period in our history when inflation was very high and consumers were getting much less for their money, year over year, especially in the absence of a rigid prices and incomes policy that fully maintains purchasing power as inflation rises,” says Issa who, while studying at LSE, famously established the “Educate the Children Fund”, which raised £3,000 to buy books for underprivileged Jamaican children.

Noting that the high 26-per cent inflation recorded by Jamaica in 2008, may be considered to be moderate, especially for countries coming from three-digit inflation figures, Issa says “double digit inflation it too high for us.”

“The ideal for us is low inflation; and when bench marked with the wider world it translates to single digit inflation, which we have been posting in recent times. I am pleased it has been hitting lower lows more recently,” says Issa in the interview.

He was commenting on a Jamaica Observer article which reported that inflation had reached a low of 1.7 per cent at the end of December last year, and that it was the lowest in more than 45 years.

It also said that “the inflation rate in Jamaica has averaged 9.79 per cent from 2002 until 2016, reaching an all-time high of 26.49 per cent in August 2008 and a record low of 1.60 per cent in November 2016.”

In commending the progress of the government in keeping inflation on a downward trajectory, Issa says more Jamaicans will fare better, particularly since most of the weighting in the consumer price index is given to food and drinks on which low income earners tend to spend most of their income.

Acknowledging that different levels of inflations have different effects, Issa cites three scenarios for any country; Jamaica included.

“At very high levels, inflation is bad for us as the majority of the population come under pressure to buy the goods and services they were once able to acquire; at the same time, businesses cut output and send workers home.

“However, at low and stable levels of inflation the opposite occurs. Producers tend to increase their workforce so that they can increase production, which could lead to better wages for workers,” Issa says.

He adds, “Inflation rate below zero, or deflation as it is called, is also not good for any economy as it keeps prices low, which can reduce job opportunities and put more load on consumers.

“But, with low and stable inflation, as we have now, we can expect production and productivity to rise and create job opportunities.”

Joe Issa Supports Teaching Money Management to Kids

Founder of one of the nation’s largest retail conglomerate Joe Issa, who is a member of “The Ultimate Professional Directory of International Who’s Who”, has said that he supports the teaching of money management across the school system, stating it will make for a more frugal populace.

“I am of the view that if we teach money management to kids, it will make them more thrifty later on in life,” says Issa, adding, “It could break the back of the phenomenon of living from pay cheque to pay cheque and make for a less turbulent credit environment, such as what we experienced in the late 1990s when both consumers and financial institutions went belly up.”

Issa’s comments come as the present administration moves to introduce an entrepreneurship curriculum in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions to foster innovation among school leavers and generate economic growth.

But now Issa, who supported the idea of early entrepreneurship training, is pushing the envelope to include money management, which he argues is a critical skill for managing spending and credit in adult life, whether for personal purposes or as managers of institutions.

And Issa is not alone. In a survey in the United States, 87 per cent of respondents believe that teaching kids about money management in schools will lower the population of people with credit issues in the future, according to the website Debate.org.

Joseph John Issa

“Yes we do not know whether they will use the financial education learnt early in life to better their futures, but what we do know is that if we do not expose them to it early, they are less likely to have the money management knowledge necessary to produce good spending habits later in life,” says Issa, whose business strategy is to spend as little as possible and earn as much as possible.

A former commercial bank director and Nominee for the Business Observer Business Leader of the Year 2004, Issa says too many consumers fall into the trap of buying on credit without the ability to manage the payments, stating that by not paying their credit card bills in full and on time, they run deeper into trouble.

“More people must understand the cost of not paying cash and the benefits of saving for the future…They must learn early not to be influenced by the Joneses   and spend unnecessarily.

“They need to create a budget and stick to it…In that budget there must be something set aside for saving for future consumption, such as the children’s education, unforeseen circumstances and paying their taxes when due. This means they must be able to track their expenses and manage their income,” says Issa, Executive Chairman of Cool Group of Companies.

He says more people need to think like Warren Buffett, referencing one of the richest men in the world, who has warned would-be investors to hold on to his ideology of frugality, which involves making every financial transaction worth the expense.

Buffett’s well-regarded techniques, which are said to be investment-boosting and portfolio-multiplying, include avoiding expenses which appeal to vanity or snobbery, going for the most cost-effective alternative, favouring expenditures on interest bearing items over all others, and establishing the expected benefits of all desirable expenses using the rule, “plus/minus/nil” to “standard of living value system”.

According to Wikipedia, “Money management is the process of managing money which includes expense tracking, investment, budgeting, banking and taxes. It is also called investment management.”

However, Issa suggests a step-by-step approach beginning with setting goals and creating a budget, which he says, “provide a critical guide for how to proceed,” adding that “it is also important to be able to track spending through bank reconciliation and save some money.”

Cool Charities Unlocking Doors Through Education

They say that education is a way out of poverty; Joe Issa says it is the only way out. “It enables entry into the labour market or business at a higher level and offers more pay and greater freedom to choose, the better the quality.”

And he, more than most should know the value of a good education having attended the best schools and universities; that’s why Issa has focused on education in giving back to society.

Issa’s approach is two-pronged: His Cool Charity provides scholarships for bright children to attend a top university, while enabling the under-privileged group to catch on by improving their learning environment with books, collateral material, cupboards and air condition units.

The two-prong approach to giving back to education has been hailed a strategic one with elements of sustainability, by addressing the disadvantages early and giving affected children a fighting chance to become future scholarship candidates.

It was Nelson Mandela who once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” and he used it effectively to change many things throughout the globe, some while in jail and many on the outside, as President of South Africa.

Another famous figure, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” The civil rights leader delivered the famous speech “I have a dream” at a rally in Washington D.C.

But it was George Washington Carver who, like Issa, spoke of the beauty of education in giving people more choices when he said, “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”

 

coolcorp.com/company/cool-charities

Discovering the Past to Appreciate Joe Issa’s Passion for Education

Zooming in from outer space, Campion College is found nestled at coordinates 18.0189361°N and 76.7711198°W, the 105 Old Hope Road address of the top school in Liguanea, Kingston where it all started for philanthropist and Eucharistic Catholic Minister Joe Issa, as a champion for the education of Jamaican children.

Issa, who was born five years after the Catholic School opened in 1960, entered it in the late 1970s while the Jesuit Fathers still taught a variety of subjects.

Today, Campion College “is one of the top three choices for GSAT exams and is widely considered to be a prominent educational facility due to its 1st place in academics for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) in 2013,” said Wikipedia, a feat believed to be heavily influenced by the brilliance and persecution of its patron saint Edmund Campion.

Like Campion’s motto, Issa has remained strong in faith and work, just like its patron saint, the Catholic martyr who was executed for his faith at Tyburn in London on December 1, 1581.

According to Catholic Online, Edmund Campion, the son of a bookseller was born in London where he was raised a Catholic. At the young age of 15 years he got a scholarship to St. John’s College in Oxford, and became a fellow when only seventeen.

His brilliance is said to have attracted the attention of such leading persons as the Earl of Leicester, Robert Cecil, and even Queen Elizabeth.

It said “he took the Oath of Supremacy acknowledging Elizabeth head of the church in England and became an Anglican deacon in 1564,” stating that “doubts about Protestanism increasingly beset him, and in 1569 he went to Ireland where further study convinced him he had been in error, and he returned to Catholicism.”

Campion was “forced to flee the persecution unleashed on Catholics by the excommunication of Elizabeth by Pope Pius V, and went to Douai, France, where he studied theology, joined the Jesuits, and the following year went to Brno, the of judicial authority of the Czech Republic and an important centre of higher education, with 33 faculties belonging to 13 institutes of higher learning and about 89,000 students.

It was there that Campion undertook the period of training and preparation for membership of the Catholic faith. “It often includes times of intense study, prayer, living in community, studying the vowed life, deepening one’s relationship with God, and deepening one’s self-awareness. It is a time of creating a new way of being in the world,” said Wikipedia.

He is said to have taught at the college of Prague and in 1578 was ordained there. He and Father Robert Persons are believed to have been the first Jesuits chosen for the English mission in 1580, according to Catholic Online.

“His activities among the Catholics, the distribution of his Decem rationes at the University Church in Oxford, and the premature publication of his famous Brag (which he had written to present his case if he was captured) made him the object of one of the most intensive manhunts in English history,” the online publication said.

Campion is believed to have been “betrayed at Lyford, near Oxford, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and when he refused to apostatize when offered rich inducements to do so, was tortured and then hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on December 1 on the technical charge of treason, but in reality because of his priesthood.”

He was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the forty English and Welsh Martyrs. His feast day is December 1, Issa’s birthday.

The co-educational Jesuit high school was founded on January 5, 1960 by Archbishop Samuel Emmanuel Carter, S.J., the sixth of seven children of the late Wilfred and Marie Carter of 61 Hagley Park Road in St. Andrew.

By August 26 that year ground was broken and the two-storey structure of eight classrooms with an accommodation for 240 pupils was formally blessed on March 20, 1961 by the Rt. Reverend John J. McEleny, S.J.,D.D., Bishop of Kingston, and was dedicated to the memory of Mr. Martin A. Waters of Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., whose bequest along with other benefactors, according to Wikipedia, made the erection possible.

All Jamaican Children Deserve a Good Education – Joe Issa

Executive Chairman of Cool Group of companies, Joe Issa, says he believes in promoting education because it is the surest way out of poverty, the scourge of all societies.

Issa, who has established charities as a conduit for giving back, has focused on education as it opens up opportunities for gainful employment, which provides the necessities for daily living – food, clothing and shelter.

However, he cautions that sometimes, depending on how enabling the business environment is, more is needed, such as a good education, creativity and imagination or even retraining in order to break completely, the cycle of poverty.

“Yes! Literacy and numeracy will take you somewhere in terms of getting a job, but you may not even need to be able to read, write and count for these low-paying jobs, such as digging holes and filling them back. And when all the holes have been dug and filled, what next is left to do? And that’s when the cookie crumbles.

“So, numeracy and literacy have their uses, such as in functionality: enabling you to follow directions in traveling, dosages in dispensing medicine, recipes in cooking and applications in using agricultural chemicals, etc. But beyond these, the mere ability to read, write and count is woefully inadequate,” says Issa.

In 1987, Issa founded “Educate the Children Fund to buy books for disadvantaged children in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean and a year later, he established the “Joe Issa/Holy Cross Scholarship Fund” to send students to university.

He describes a good education as one that does not merely enable school leavers to get a decent entry level job, but one which allows them to matriculate to higher education, such as college and university and get a profession.

As a civic-minded philanthropist who has hosted youth camps and disadvantaged children in the communities in which his businesses operate, Issa believes that schools must be progressive in order to churn out university-ready children.

With this in mind, he founded “Global Education 2000”, which has twined Jamaican schools with their counterparts in the United States. Several schools have benefited from these exchanges, including Three Hills All Age School in St. Mary, which was twinned with Broward Elementary School in Tampa, Florida.

Issa, who was pleased with the idea, said it’s a “major development which will see an exciting, rewarding exchange of cultural ideas and thoughts between students and teachers at both institutions.”

“Much of who I am today is due to my good fortune of having been able to access a good education and I wish nothing less for all Jamaican children,” Issa says.

A COOL HALF MILLION A MONTH TO EDUCATION

Jason Alliman is a psychology freshman at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

His tuition and related fees total more than US$46,000 or J$3.3 million per year, a sum Jason says he would have had to borrow had it not been for the Cool Charities/Holy Cross Scholarship Fund operated by gasoline retailer Cool Corporation and the US College.

“It (the scholarship) does give me an advantage, but it’s hard to try to fully appreciate the value of the scholarship and of coming to Holy cross because, obviously, education is important but it doesn’t matter where you go to school much and what you study,” the St. George’s College graduate told the Sunday Observer from his dorm room at Holy Cross.

He is, however, happy that he was the “advantage” of not having “to worry about money and applying for loans.”

His mother Claudia, however, was les modest in her response. “He wouldn’t have been able to go had he not got it,” she laughed. “He’s right, we would have borrowed [because] we would have done anything to help him but he had to earn it,” she added.

Jason, like several other students from across the country has been benefitting from Cool since 1998 when executive chairman of the group, Joseph Issa, started the initiative to help students realize different aspects of their educational goals. The scholarship programme, which started out targeting beneficiaries from the company’s St. Ann headquarters, also includes a project called Computers 3000 Education Programme which donates computers and air conditioning units to educational institutions.

At Mar-Jam prep school in Ocho Rios, administrator Heather Maragh said the three computers handed over by the group of companies, which has diversified its products offerings to include phone cards and cash machines, have given more students access to the worldwide web.

“We’re really grateful to Cool because, usually, donations are given to government schools because the perception is that we’re rich, but that isn’t so. Most of the fees we earn go back out into salaries. They [donors] don’t realize the importance of private schools but with the population growing and public schools not being built, we have stepped into fill the gap,” she said.

The benefits to students at Exchange All-Age in the garden parish are just as invaluable, according to school secretary Lavern Mignott, who spoke with the Sunday Observer last week.

“The two computers have helped us to reach closer to the goal of having 24. With the new ones, we now have 11 and for group activities, it means that at least six more students are able to access computers,” she said.

“That helps both the students and the teacher because more groups can go per session and that means a shorter class time,” added Mignott.

Cool Corp has pledged to continue demonstrating a keen interest in the future of young people and says it will continue its support by giving $500,000 each month to education.

“The Fund is committed to spending a half of million dollars per month to assist the education sector across the island,” group marketing and promotions manager Kiran Daswani told the Sunday Observer.

“Mr. Issa is a strong believer that a solid education at the initial stages of learning will make a brighter and better Jamaica tomorrow. With this in mind, anything that the educational system in this country we are willing to take a look at and try and see where we can be of assistance,” she continued.

The Cool Charities/Holy Cross scholarship programme is not the only aid programme Issa has supported. While he was still a student at the London School of Economics, he organized the ‘Educate the Children Fund’ which raised more than £3,000 to purchase Mathematics and English text books for students in Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. He also spearheaded the establishment of Global Education 2000, which focuses on the physical improvement of schools, increasing literacy among young children and fostering better relations between schools and the communities in which they exist.

Dozens of Jamaican students have already received scholarships through the Fund to pursue degrees at Holy Cross College- Issa’s alma mater- and at other institutions in the United States.

“The Fund started out by assisting one student with a scholarship to a school in the US,” said Daswani. “We mainly focus on schools in the rural areas of Jamaica as we found that these schools were in more need. After the first scholarship more and more persons got motivated to apply and qualify for this opportunity to study abroad.”

Concerning the addition of projects to the scholarship fund, she said: “The projects we added are based on the needs of individual schools. The first project was called ‘Computers 3000 Education Improvement’ where we have donated more than 20 computers to schools and we have another 20 on the way.”

It was under that project that Cool presented the computers and air conditioning units to Mar-Jam prep and Exchange All-Age in July this year. At that time, they also donated equipment to six other schools in the Ocho Rios area: St John’s Mt Zion and Columbus prep schools, which received three computers each; Steer Town and Priory primary and junior high, each of which got two computers and two air conditions units; and the United Learning Centre which received two computers and one air condition unit.

They also donate textbooks to students who demonstrated academic excellence but who face financial challenges and are not able to buy material for school.

Cool Corp is the parent company for several companies bearing the Cool trade mark, including the Cool Oasis service stations, Cool Cards, Cool Cash, Cool Signs, Cool Gear, Cool Wind, Cool Automotive Distributors and Cool Petroleum which are spread across the country.

Work Cited: Sunday Observer

NEW SCHOLARSHIP FUND OPENED FOR JAMAICAN STUDENTS

A Holy Cross/Jamaica scholarship is to be offered once every four years to a less privileged Jamaican student attending one of the Jesuit High Schools, St. Georges’ College or Campion College.

The primary intent in the establishment of the scholarship is to “cement the links between Holy Cross, the New England Jesuits, and Jamaica,” a news release says.

According to the statement from the organisers of the scholarship, Jamaica is one of the most indebted countries in the world. It has an acute shortage of foreign exchange, and progress is being hindered by a high illiteracy rate estimated at about 50 percent. The island suffers from “a lost generation of talented and educated citizens.”

As a result of political and economic instability in the past, “many good people emigrated. Now, those who remain and have an education enjoy a tremendous advantage, and their beliefs and principles, whether good or bad, influence their method of managing. It is hoped that the educational advantage of the recipient — a Holy Cross graduate – would be used to further not only individual goals, but community goals in Jamaica as well.

The scholarship is to be structured so that the beneficiary feels compelled to give something back to the Jamaica community and the schools which made the scholarship possible.

The Scholarship Committee as the Jamaica end, will consist of the Principal of St. George’s College (Father Hughs), the principal of Campion College (Mr. McKay, a vocational guidance counselor, a member from the board of one of these schools (preferably a person who presently sits on both boards), and a member from the private sector whose resources have not been significantly tapped in the regard (he/she would most likely chair the committee).

The Scholarship will be open to graduates of Campion College and St. George’s College (both in Kingston), and will be awarded every four years to a graduate of one of these schools.

The candidate must meet the following requirements:

*was born in Jamaica and if not, of parents who have been domiciled in Jamaica either at the time of his/her birth or during the whole of the five (5) years immediately preceding his/her date of graduation;

*is a person of good character, possesses leadership qualities and is no older than nineteen (19) at date of application;

*satisfies the requirements for admission to Holy Cross College.

Successful candidates must return to Jamaica for a period of four (4) years immediately following completion of his/her course of study.

Failing this, the student would be expected to repay the whole or an appropriate proportion (as decided by the scholarship committee) of the Jamaican supported share of the scholarship funds, plus interest. The funds would be used to help other winners of the scholarship.

Source: The Jamaica Record

ALL FOR EDUCATION

Photo caption: ALL FOR EDUCATION: State Minister of Education Burchell Whiteman (left) looks on as Joe Issa, Jr., (2^nd left) presents Happy Grove High School board chairman, Rev. Frank Davis with some of the supplies bought by Caribbean students at the London School of Economics for schools in depressed areas. Others from the left are Lauriston Lindsay, principal of the school and Fitz Taylor, assistant chief education officer.

Education Budget Data Prompt Call to Redirect Resources towards the Poor Relative to the Rich, Ripple Effect Greater

Expenditure on salaries and running the school system are not helping poor students in particular.

Chairman of Cool Group of Companies, Joseph John Issa, says in an interview that based on the 2012/13 education budget, the Jamaican authorities should be urged to consider redirecting resources to educating the poor relative to the rich, as the ripple effect in the economy will be greater and will empower a new commune that can now contribute sustainably, to the social and economic development of the country.

Issa’s statement comes in light of the 2012/13 education budget which shows that a relatively small amount of resources is directed specifically at the poor, compared with that which goes to everyone including the rich, who already possess the means.

“When we spend on educating the poor, we are not just giving the proverbial fish, but we are empowering primary recipients, who in turn will empower others, and so on, churning successive generations of individuals who are empowered to make a greater and lasting contribution to national development.

“You will not find that great a ripple effect with any other income cohort except the ‘have-nots’, because they tend to spend relatively more of their income, which increases the earnings of others and their ability to spend. This is unlike the ‘haves’, who do the exact opposite,” says Chairman of Cool Group of Companies, Joe Issa.

A former student at the London School of Economics (LSE), he added that “this ripple effect by the poorer cohort will also be reflected in better social interactions and information reach to communities.”

In terms of the level of budgetary support given to Education generally, and the poor in particular, figures extrapolated show that in 2012/13, Education received $77.5 billion or just 12.6 per cent of the national budget. Of this amount, 97.8 per cent was for recurrent expenditure, leaving just $1.72 billion or 2.2 per cent for capital expenses, which Central Administration gobbled $985.8 million or 57 per cent. [1]

The remaining budget of $735 million, in which the ‘have-nots’ might have benefitted include approximately $30 million for Students Nutrition, $222 million for Early Childhood Education, $241million to Primary Education, $3 million for Special Education and $69 million towards Youth Development Programmes.

Commenting on the low level of funding for books, Joey says, “Expenditure on salaries and running the school system are not helping poor students in particular. Such expenditure is for everybody – rich and poor alike. But when you spend money on buying books, you are helping poor students relatively more as the rich kids will already have their own,” Joey posits.

He says in addition “it is not just about books anymore, as more and more of them and other critical information materials are being digitized and made available online, which is not as accessible to children with no means.”

While commending the $223.8 million or 0.3 per cent contribution to the national education budget by the major private sector Foundations in 2012/13, which went towards the poor, Joey says much more is needed.

A philanthropist, Joe has given much to education over the years. By his own account, born into a rich family he could not imagine what it would be like going to school without lunch or books.

With very good reason to give back to education, Joey founded the widely publicised ‘Educate the Children Fund’ in 1987 while attending the renowned LSE, which took the idea onboard and gave it a life of its own. [2][3]

A year later, after completing his studies at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, USA in 1988, he launched the ‘Joe Issa Holy Cross/Jamaica Scholarship Fund’, which made a scholarship available to a talented undergraduate Jamaican child once every four years to attend the prestigious Holy Cross.

The scholarship was first won by his alma mater, Campion College in Kingston. The initiative was commended by the media, which stated that “the scholarship was one of the most sought after awards by students across Jamaica.” [4]

Another major Joey initiative is ‘Global Education 2000’ – a project which helps Jamaican schools by partnering them with their US counterparts. Several Jamaican schools are said to have benefited from various exchange programmes.[5]

Since then, as Chairman of Cool Corporation, a group of ‘Cool’ branded companies that cut across many industries, Joey has set up Cool Charities to give back largely in the education of those most in need to empower them.[6]

References
1.     Ministry of Education 2012/13 Budget
2.     Educate the Children Fund: January 26, 1987 issue No. 255 of LSE’s paper, The Beaver.        3.     February 5, 1987 edition of the Star.
4.    Joey launches Joe Issa Holy Cross/Jamaica Scholarship – Jamaica Record, Friday
July14, 1988
5.    Expanding “Global Education 2000” – North Coast Times Feb 6-12, 2000 p.13- a
6.    Link to Cool Charities