Among the sea of fifth- and sixth-graders listening attentively on an early-November Monday, perhaps there’s the next great captain of industry.
The next Bill Gates?
Maybe a female business role model, like Renee Parsons? She was addressing the students during Junior Achievement’s annual BizTown in Tempe.
JA’s BizTown gives aspiring young business leaders early career exploration and access to basic financial concepts.
Many kids in the program come from homes with no mentor equipped to teach those skills, or from schools where business education to help move them forward is lacking or nonexistent.
Parsons is what BizTown students aspire to be.
Six years ago, she founded Scottsdale-based PXG Apparel, combining her passions of golf and fashion. As president and executive creative director, she has built an internationally successful company that manufactures cutting-edge golf attire stylish enough to be worn beyond the golf course.
She also is director of hospitality at Scottsdale National Golf Club as well as a member of Women Moving Millions, a global philanthropic community of people committed to large-scale investment in women and girls.
Parsons delivered a message of encouragement to the students, to find their passion, find what makes them happy, and then find a way to build that into a professional life.
“You’re more apt to be successful if you’re passionate about it,” she said. “And it does take hard work. Nothing happens overnight, so you really need to put the work in, be dedicated, be disciplined. But that goes back to if you love it, if you’re passionate about it, you are very likely to do the hard work because you enjoy it.”
Her words resonated with this group because Parsons is a Junior Achievement alumna, having taken part while in high school back in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
“And I remember it fondly,” Parsons said. “I grew up in a small town, but I just recall that I was always interested in business.”
At 13, she began working at The Pixie, a family-owned restaurant. However, she said she had a taskmaster boss who cut her no slack despite being the owner’s daughter.
“We have a very entrepreneurial family, so when I heard about Junior Achievement, I was like, ‘Wow,’” Parsons said.
“It really helped me learn about business and how to manage finances, how to think about business, making a product, selling a product, pricing a product, and then all the things that go along with running a business, like paying your bills and your overhead and all that fun stuff that when you’re a young kid, you have no idea.”
She got the hang of it.
Her husband, Bob, has his own business resume that’s roughly the length of a 350-yard drive right down the middle off the first tee.
He founded GoDaddy.
His successes also include PXG Golf (it is his husky voice on the TV commercials, saying, “Nobody makes golf clubs the way we do, period.”), as well as Scottsdale National Golf Club, Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale, GO AZ Motorcycles, and YAM Properties. He bought Westgate Entertainment District next to State Farm Stadium in Glendale in 2018.
Bob Parsons is a self-made billionaire and Renee is on her way.
Together, they created the Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation in 2012, to aid low-income and underserved populations, marginalized communities and causes that often are overlooked or underfunded by mainstream philanthropy.
Targeting homelessness, medical care, at-risk youth, education and the needs of wounded veterans and military families, their foundation gifts nonprofit organizations that address these issues.
In 2013, Renee and Bob signed The Giving Pledge, a public promise to give away half of their net worth.
Renee said they’re donating “over a million dollars every two weeks, on average. You can’t take it with you, right?”
On Nov. 5, the day after Renee Parsons’ visit to BizTown, JA announced that it received a $300,000 grant from The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation to expand its in-class curriculum and JA BizTown programming in low-income public schools.
“It’s kind of full circle for me,” she said. “Through our foundation, we’re looking to offer hope and the American dream to the recipients of the organizations we support. And with many of the kids being from under-served communities and who may not have those fundamentals at home that give them a leg up, we hope to make it a more level playing field.
“That’s why we want to get involved with JA, not the least of which is I also have fond memories of it.”
The funding means 2,500 students will get the opportunity to participate in JA programs. Junior Achievement relies almost entirely on the support of community partners, individuals and local businesses to fund its programs.
“This investment will give thousands more students the opportunity to gain the life skills and confidence that come with participation in JA programs,” said Katherine Cecala, president of Junior Achievement of Arizona. “We are equally proud to count Mrs. Parsons among our Junior Achievement alumni.”
Talking about addressing Junior Achievement students in Tempe, Renee Parsons said, “It’s been a lot of fun combining my two passions. That’s the message I hope I left the fifth- and sixth-graders at Junior Achievement.”
(Social Renaissance)
JA a launching pad
Junior Achievement of Arizona, 636 W. Southern Ave., Tempe, strives to fill a critical gap for students who receive limited real-world experience in school, particularly when it comes to money management and career readiness.
Nearly 190,000 Arizona students in kindergarten through post-secondary school, the majority from low-income backgrounds, were in JA programs last year. They were aided by 9,500 volunteer mentors.
JA’s BizTown takes it a step further, teaching economic concepts, workplace skills and personal and business finances in a student-size town built just for them so they feel like they have a real job with responsibilities in the real world.
The goal is to emerge with financial literacy, career readiness and entrepreneurship skills, without regard to socio-economic status.
It includes classroom lessons, where they learn about working in and being consumers, collaborating on business plans, calculating operating costs, designing marketing campaigns, applying for jobs, voting for city officials and exploring careers.
They put their skills to work as “employees” for a day in BizTown, JA’s on-site learning facility that looks like a small city, with more than 40 businesses and industries, in its own simulated economy.
They get hands-on experience as employees and consumers paying rent, taxes and utilities, buying advertising from the radio station, conducting TV interviews, purchasing insurance, depositing paychecks, buying other business’ products and handling customer service.
“I was talking to their fifth- and sixth-graders, so I kept it fun and positive and interactive,” Renee Parsons said. “I told them that my passions are golf and fashion, and I was able to combine those into the business world, which is super fun.
“It is super important to find their happiness and joy and to have fun with that.
“I remember when I was in Junior Achievement that I got sort of a sense of responsibility and working as a team to bring a product to life and to bring a business to a consumer. That really stuck with me and has helped me throughout my business career.”
BizTown’s hands-on program introduces 4th, 5th, and 6th graders to economic concepts, workplace skills, and personal and business finances in a student-sized town built just for them.
(Courtesy of Junior Achievement of Arizona)
Movin’ on up
Her days at The Pixie were iconic, Parsons recalled.
“I was able to ride my bicycle to work back then. It was a small town,” she said. “It really taught me a lot about responsibility, to be to work on time, keep your uniform clean, remember your name tag. I had to get a Social Security number. And, oh, they take taxes out.
“I had a tough but fair boss. I remember her to this day. Her name was Ruth. I was kind of scared of her, but it was healthy scare. That was a great first boss for me to be exposed to, and the fact that she was a woman was even better.”
Parsons stayed home and went to Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. She worked while in college at the Comfort Inn that her family bought near campus.
Initially, she majored in Psychology. A statistics class “that I couldn’t hack” was a slap in the face that helped her change course.
“And then, to be totally honest, I started thinking about it and I didn’t want to sit in a room all day long and listen to problems, right?” she said. “So, I ended up with a psychology minor, which has been very helpful in my business career.
“I shifted to hospitality because it’s what I knew. It’s what I was passionate about, and I just loved it. I had the service mentality, which is what hospitality is all about, and it just so happens that CMU had a great program.”
Her career brought her to Scottsdale with Starwood Hotels. When she was working at Westin Kierland Resort & Spa, a friend mentioned that he had a friend he’d like her to meet.
She met Bob Parsons on a blind date 17 years ago.
“Bob and I talked on the phone a couple of times, and then we met for a date,” she said. “I didn’t even know what GoDaddy was back then. I was new to the Valley. So, we went from there.”
They’ve been married for 15 years.
As a golfer who was not totally satisfied with apparel options, she saw an opportunity in the industry and created PXG Apparel in 2018.
“I have a wonderful team. We saw a niche in the marketplace for the consumer and especially for women, and that there weren’t a lot of options for flattering, well-fitting apparel,” she said.
“We had an opportunity to tap into some great talent on the fashion side and then build out a team to do what we wanted to do in our vision, which is to have the best apparel in the space, and also have apparel that can transcend golf with the quality and elevated materials that you would wear outside of golf. That’s really our mission.
“It’s been a lot of fun combining my two passions. That’s the message I hope I left the fifth- and sixth-graders at Junior Achievement.”
The grads
Research shows that JA alums earn 20 percent more in their careers, are more likely to start a business and demonstrate higher critical-thinking skills compared to the general population.
Youth who receive JA programming are:
• More likely to graduate high school.
• 33 percent more likely to graduate college.
• 67 percent more likely to receive an advanced degree.
JA’s programs help narrow the income gap and provide pathways for Arizona’s most vulnerable students to overcome inequities.
• 85%: Alums who say JA played an important role in fostering a belief that they could achieve their goals.
• 45%: Businesses started by alumni that employ more than 20 people, compared to 12% of U.S. small businesses.
• 60%: Hispanic JA alums who have started one or more businesses during their careers.
• 52%: African American JA alums who have started one or more businesses during their careers.
• 51%: Caucasian JA alums who have started one or more businesses during their careers.
–Source: Junior Achievement
JA’s achievements
• 100%: Teachers who would recommend JA BizTown to a colleague.
• 19,122: Students who participated in the JA BizTown program last year.
• 95%: Students who would recommend JA BizTown to a friend.
–Source: Junior Achievement
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