On Tuesday, April 19, Jewish Federation of St. Louis awarded Rozzy Learning Company $30,000 for their Discovering Israel through STEAM Careers program. Yaira Jessica Gordon, co-founder of Rozzy Learning Company, was a 2015 JFACE participant. JFACE participants were part of Washington University in St. Louis’ Social Enterprise & Innovation Competition (SEIC), through the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurships.
Rozzy Learning Company’s DISC (Discovering Israel through STEAM Careers) program was chosen as the winner of Jewish Federation of St. Louis’ $30,000 award because the team is credible, experienced and passionate. They were able to show Proof of Concept with a Minimum Viable Product (prototype) and the company has diverse revenue streams which promote sustainability. Furthermore, the DISC program has large potential to scale and will create impact broadly around Israel education and STEAM education
Over 120 teams pitched in the first round of SEIC, five of which were JFACE teams. 19 teams competed in the final round, two of which were JFACE teams competing specifically for the funding from Jewish Federation of St. Louis. In addition to Jewish Federation of St. Louis, funders such as Missouri Foundation for Health, Lutheran Foundation and the YouthBridge Foundation provided over $200,000 to fund SEIC winners.
“We are thrilled to provide initial funding for Rozzy Learning Company’s DISC program,” said Emily Bornstein, coordinator of the JFACE program for the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. “This is why we started JFACE – to support passionate, Jewish entrepreneurs like Yaira who are innovating in the Jewish community.”
This is the first year of the JFACE program. Helping to lead the program is an Innovation Committee of lay leaders: Anna Shabsin (Committee Chair), Geoff Gross
Doug Kolker, Ted Houser, Marci Ranger, David Schenberg and Mike Steinbaum
For information about how to get involved in the next iteration of the program, contact Emily Bornstein at EBornstein@JFedSTL.org.