Faces Of New Bedford #134: Jeffrey Pelletier

Meet Jeffrey Pelletier, 29-Year-old President of Junior Achievement of Southern Massachusetts.

Jeff was born extremely premature, his lungs collapsed and he was given his last rights on his 2nd day of life. Fortunately, he pulled through and as he grew older he understood life to be such an amazing gift and asked himself what he was going to do with that gift. He grew up in New Bedford, graduated from Bishop Stang High School, and went on to Methodist University in North Carolina where he received his business degree.

After college, he worked internationally with nonprofits in Haiti and Honduras where he helped support medical programs for communities that were ravaged by poverty and job creation programs to help families build a better life for themselves. After traveling around the world and across the country and working with everyone from Fortune 500 companies to local aid organizations – he moved back home to New Bedford to make a difference.

After volunteering with numerous local nonprofits and working with the New Bedford Economic Development Council and Sylvia Group, a leading local company, he accepted the role of President at Junior Achievement. Since then, he has used the knowledge he gained in his experience around the world to impact youth in New Bedford and across the region by preparing local students for their academic and career success. Out of the 109 JA Chapters across the U.S., Jeff and his team have been able to help the local chapter grow at the second-fastest rate in the country and they expect to serve nearly 7,000 local youth this year. He hopes to be able to help students in our community understand what it takes to achieve their dreams and equip them with the tools to attain those goals. Jeff, his wife Nataly and their two boys live in New Bedford.

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Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com.

Read more of the Faces of New Bedford series here.