Jared Jerrick

United States and Guyana

Former Commissioned Officer, United States Army

Fostering sustainable economic self-determination for youth in Guyana by establishing financial literacy programs and youth development hubs.

Jared Jerrick is a former commissioned officer in the United States Army, where he spent nine years leading soldiers, executing complex high-intensity operations, and managing vital resources in mission-driven environments. Maintaining ties to home during his service, Jared led an annual Christmas Toy Drive in Guyana for fifteen years, using a community-based model of direct action and trust to support economically disadvantaged youth and families. As the founder of this initiative, he built networks across local businesses and international donors to expand from a local orphanage project into a coordinated operation delivering hundreds of gifts and resources to over 400 children annually. Seeking to take a stronger ecosystem approach, Jared will focus his time in the Scholars program on building a financial literacy pilot for secondary schools in Guyana with hopes of scaling the initiative into a permanent youth development center. He plans to use the program to master system scaling and collaborative policy design, translating his history of seasonal relief into a durable national blueprint for economic opportunity.