Camden political science major launches nonprofit company – Miracles Global – to better people's lives
When Jeffrey Jones of Mickleton turned 20 he vowed to help improve the lives of the sick and disenfranchised, especially their access to technology. He founded Miracles Global, originally a Rutgers–Camden student group, now a full-fledged 501(c)(3) that aims to make a difference in Camden – and eventually the world.
Two years to the very day that Jones envisioned this organization – his birthday, in fact – he sat as an invited guest with regional leaders to discuss education reform practices with the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education at a Philadelphia event.
“I was the youngest person in the room. The others were older and some would say more accomplished, but something about my organization put me there,” the political science major says. “It was such a blessing.”
That ‘something’ of course has been hard to miss, especially at Rutgers–Camden. Efforts that Miracles Global, which has about 10 members and hundreds of supporters, has undertaken include tutoring students at Leap Academy University Charter School in Camden each week; generating thousands of dollars in school supplies for a local school in need; creating and offering magnets and stickers for a Haiti relief fund that raised thousands of dollars in aid; visiting Cooper Hospital’s Child Life Center regularly; and collecting and contributing about 30 large trash bags of clothes to a Camden shelter.
“We’ve had a successful year. It’s been a lot of work, but family and faith has allowed me to undertake these projects with enjoyment,” offers Jeff, who has been recognized with several awards and scholarships for his remarkable community service.
What inspired Jeff to help save the world? He credits his mom for putting him on this philanthropic path.
“My mother would take us on walks around Camden and we would meet homeless people, people in all kinds of circumstances, and my mom would say, ‘Just because people live in these predicaments, doesn’t make them bad people,’” says Jeff, who actually lived with his family in Camden for the first ten years of his life.
Jones continued to follow his mom’s lead by choosing Rutgers–Camden, where she graduated with a psychology degree – and highest honors – in 2001. His mother’s determination to earn an undergraduate degree after more than a decade of first starting college also inspired Jeff’s honors thesis about women’s critical role in the global economy.
While Jones says that Miracles Global will go on forever, he’s planning on attending a top business school with an international focus to make sure that it does.
“I want Miracles Global to live up to what it says it is and I feel like it’s headed toward that. This will be the driving force of my life.”
Media Contact: Cathy K. Donovan
(856) 225-6627
E-mail: catkarm@camden.rutgers.edu