This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) sets for the terms and understanding between the Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia and Torusoft to delivery and manage the Digital Bridge Scholarship Program.
Background
The Digital Bridge Scholarship (herein referred to as DBS) was developed by Torusoft to identify students with a keen interest in information and communication technologies (aka ICT), and helps them explore this interest by subsidizing online classes with a mentor for a period of 6 months. The DBS is predicated on three fundamental principles:
- Free for students and their families;
- Provision of ongoing engagement, practice and guidance; and
- Easily scalable to a wide audience.
Torusoft is a mobile IT consulting and development company based in Halifax.
Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia’s core purpose is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in the global economy. Programs are delivered by volunteers from the business community across Nova Scotia and are based on three educational pillars linked with success in business:
- Financial literacy;
- Workplace readiness; and
- Entrepreneurship.
Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia is a registered charity (CRA #10755 4271 RR0001) with a head office in Halifax.
Purpose
This MOU will enable Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia, in partnership with Torusoft, to offer DBS to secondary school students across Nova Scotia, current Achievers and Alumni of Junior Achievement. Through Junior Achievement, the DBS will be targeted to student executives in Company Program who undertake the role of VP of Digital Technologies. This partnership will require the collaboration of all parties to ensure maximum benefit (learning and mentorship) to participating students.
The goal of the partnership will be accomplished by undertaking the following activities:
Responsibilities of Junior Achievement:
- Sponsor the scholarship program by presenting it as part of Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia’s programming
- Market DBS to Achievers and Alumni
- Link and host the DBS website; collecting and receipting donations
- Monitor the progress of students engaged in DBS
- Leverage relationships with existing JA teachers and volunteers to recruit mentors for DBS recipients
Responsibilities of Torusoft:
- Develop website back-end and front-end, inclusive of server, SSL certificate, registered domain name and proper features and functionality (i.e. content management system for collecting constituent information, fundraising and program management features)
- Link website to Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia’s website and bank account to receive donations and issue receipts to donors via Stripe.com (e-commerce software)
- Market DBS to ICT community investors
- Liaise with Department of Education and School Board officials to recruit teachers to act as mentors
Reporting
On a quarterly basis all parties will meet to discuss the effectiveness of the DBS program. The parties will mutually decide on the criteria used to evaluate, which may include, but not be limited to:
- Student and mentor enrollment
- Sponsor commitments
- Engagement of mentors and students
- Student and mentor feedback
Funding
This MOU is not a direct commitment of funds. Community based funders will be asked for a commitment of $150 (scholarship), which will be used to facilitate one student participating in the DBS program. Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia will retain $30 to address administration requirements. Torusoft will retain $15 to address infrastructure requirements. The remaining $105 will cover the cost of the online learning catalogue, currently powered by Codeschool.com. All parties agree that the value of scholarship will not change unless mutually agreed to. It is further understood that the DBS program is a non-profit initiative, established to provide social value.
Duration
This MOU is at-will and may be modified by mutual consent of authorized officials from Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia or Torusoft. This MOU shall become effective upon signature by the authorized officials and will remain in effect until modified or terminated by any one of the partners or by mutual consent. In the absence of mutual agreement by the authorized officials, this MOU shall end on June 30, 2015.