Miami NAF Academies - MECA

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$20,000 Goal

Miami-Dade NAF Academies are making a powerful impact on students and our community.

This past school year, 24,484 students were served through NAF Academies across 34 M-DCPS high schools, creating more opportunities for students to explore careers, develop real-world skills, and prepare for their futures.

Today, Miami-Dade is home to 60 NAF Distinguished Academies, made possible through strong collaboration between educators, business leaders, and industry partners.

Your support helps expand these opportunities and empower more students to become college-and career-ready. Together, we can continue building pathways to success for Miami-Dade students.

Miami NAF Academy Board members develop and support work-based learning activities, fundraise, give scholarships, impacting:

24,484 students
in 82 NAF career academies
34 high schools
60 of the academies are distinguished

Work-based learning designed to better prepare students for college and careers includes:

job shadowing, mentoring,
industry classroom speakers,
internships, fundraising, and
scholarships.

Our flagship event is the annual M-DCPS NAF MEGA Student Industry Conference featuring a keynote speaker and over 50 industry presenters, 60 break out sessions, plus student interviews with employers seeking to hire summer interns. Learn more at: https://miaminaf.org

Academy students study Miami-Dade County Public Schools Career and Technical Education (CTE) in career pathways aligning with Miami-Dade County's targeted industries:

FINANCE including Banking, Finance, and Trade Logistics Academies

HOSPITALITY / TOURISM including Culinary, Hospitality & Tourism, Education/Teaching, and Arts/Entertainment Academies

STEM Agriculture, Health Science, Engineering, IT - AI, Cybersecurity and Gaming Academies

You can give to the CTE area of your choice, selecting payment under your preference (Finance, Hospitality/Tourism or STEM) on the Give Miami website. Come back to this page to Donate beginning on Saturday, Nov. 14th through Give Miami Day, Thursday, Nov. 19th!

Donations will be made to Magnet Educational Choice Association (MECA), a 501(c)3 Not-For-Profit, with Direct Support Organization of Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

This past year:

51% male, 48% female, <1% gender nonconforming or unknown
92% of the grads are college bound, many recipients of Miami NAF scholarships (increase of 2%)
100% of 2024 academy seniors graduated
50% of 2025 grads completed a paid or volunteer 5 week internship

Our commitment is to empower future leaders and to help them join the workforce pipeline at their best career level as possible.

Can you help us to make a difference and help shape the future of our career academy students? With your help we can do so much more!

Giving Activity

Mission

More than just career academy classes....The NAF Academies of Miami-Dade County Public Schools empower students to be prepared for college and careers through real-world "work-based" learning activities!

With a mission to connect what students learn in the Career and Technical Ed. classroom with the real world of careers; raising funds for college and career activities to better prepare students for both; mentoring students; as well as, guiding students, parents, teachers and schools in the higher education requirements and latest industry trends!

Industry and Education Partners working together to support NAF Career Academies through the MECA non-profit foundation, they engage community and industry partners to promote student and educator career awareness and exploration, developing work-based learning activities, and sustaining academies with training and fundraising.