Julian Jarrett Juventas Foundation news centers on a simple but powerful idea: success should never end with the person who achieves it.
Jarrett, a sophomore Honors Finance major at Howard University, founded The Juventas Foundation, a nonprofit built to expand educational access, mentorship, and leadership development for young Black men. What started as a personal conviction during his freshman year has grown into a structured organization with two named scholarships, an advisory board, and a launch date already on the calendar.
From Birmingham to The Mecca
Jarrett’s story starts in Birmingham, Alabama, where his parents raised him on the belief that education, faith, service, and hard work could open doors that once seemed out of reach. He also grew up hearing a message familiar to many young Black men: that he would likely have to work twice as hard to receive half the opportunity. Rather than discourage him, that reality pushed him forward.
By the time he finished high school, Jarrett had built an academic and leadership résumé strong enough to earn admission to more than 65 colleges and universities, along with over $1.5 million in scholarship offers. He chose Howard University anyway. “When I chose Howard University, I chose more than a college. I chose a legacy,” Jarrett said. That choice put him in daily contact with future CEOs, attorneys, physicians, and policymakers who shared something he hadn’t experienced at the same scale before: a community unapologetically committed to lifting each other up. At the same time, Howard sharpened his awareness of a harder truth. Financial barriers continue to keep many capable students out of college, and Black male enrollment nationally keeps declining. Those two realities sitting side by side became the spark for what he’d eventually build.
Jarrett didn’t want to create just another scholarship fund. He wanted an organization built to outlast his own time on campus. That meant developing a mission statement, building an advisory board, designing scholarship structures, and creating application processes, all while carrying a full course load as an underclassman.
He also gave real thought to the foundation’s identity. The name “Juventas” comes from the Latin word for youth, a deliberate choice Jarrett says reflects the foundation’s purpose. “I was drawn to Latin because it serves as the foundation for many modern languages, just as I hope The Juventas Foundation can serve as a foundation for students beginning a new chapter of their lives,” he said. That same philosophy carries into the foundation’s scholarship names: Elevare Vir and Promissum 1867.
Skepticism came with the territory. As a college freshman building a nonprofit from scratch, Jarrett regularly fielded doubts about whether someone his age could pull it off. He pressed forward anyway, betting that age shouldn’t be a ceiling on impact.
What The Juventas Foundation Actually Does
The foundation currently runs two scholarship initiatives: the Elevare Vir Scholarship and the Promissum 1867 Scholarship. Both are designed to recognize young men who demonstrate leadership, resilience, service, and academic achievement, alongside a genuine commitment to lifting others up alongside them. Jarrett is clear that scholarships are only the starting point. The longer-term plan includes mentorship, leadership development, and professional opportunity pipelines that extend well past the moment a scholarship check gets cut.
“We are not simply investing in academic potential,” Jarrett said. “We are investing in people, their aspirations, and their ability to create lasting change within their communities.”
The inaugural scholarship cycle opens July 1 and runs through August 1, giving incoming first-year Black men at Howard a direct opportunity to apply for support before they even set foot on campus. Jarrett’s foundation didn’t emerge in isolation. It grew directly out of his experience navigating Howard’s campus and student leadership structures. During the 2025-2026 academic year, he served as Freshman Senator-at-Large in the Howard University Student Association Senate, representing more than 2,700 students alongside fellow senator Amaya Lawrence. He now serves as the 2026-2027 School of Business Senator and Finance Committee Chair.
He’s also Chair of Professional Development for The Men of George Washington Carver, Inc., a freshman male selective organization built on the principles of manhood, brotherhood, and community service. Jarrett credits that brotherhood with teaching him how to lead with empathy across differing perspectives, a lesson he says was reinforced by attending a majority-female campus where understanding and collaborating with Black women became essential to effective leadership.
Add to that his recognition as Howard’s School of Business First-Year Student of the Year, plus his standing as a Greenwood Project Scholar, SEO Fellow, and Wharton Academy Scholar, and a clear pattern emerges. Nearly every experience Jarrett has accumulated at Howard fed directly into the foundation he’s now built.
A Mission Bigger Than One Person
Asked about his proudest moment, Jarrett didn’t point to any single accolade. He pointed to the foundation itself, calling it the first time he’s been able to bring his accumulated experiences together in service of something larger than his own résumé. “It is a reminder that success is not simply about reaching new heights yourself, but about building something that allows others to climb alongside you,” he said.
That ethos echoes a principle his parents raised him on: to whom much is given, much is expected. It’s a value he says Howard reinforced through its culture of reaching back to bring others forward, and it now sits at the center of everything The Juventas Foundation is trying to build.
What Comes Next
Beyond the July scholarship launch, Jarrett envisions the foundation eventually expanding its reach to serve Black scholars more broadly, not just incoming Howard students. His long-term goal is mentorship and community that extends well past a single financial award.
His advice to students hoping to walk a similar path is direct: don’t let other people define the ceiling on your potential. “Just because something has not been done before does not mean it is impossible,” he said. For Jarrett, that belief isn’t just a quote he lives by. It’s the entire premise behind an organization built by a sophomore who decided not to wait until graduation to start giving back.
