Today we’d like to introduce you to Larissa Jean
Hi Larissa, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Greetings! My name is Larissa Dayana Jean. I’m so thankful to be able to steward the vision of the Gift Center as the Founder and CEO. I like to say that the Gift Center started when I was four years of age. As a little girl, I knew that I wanted to teach. I would teach my teddy bears, teach my dolls, teach my brothers, cousins, and anyone I could stand in front of and teach! I remember that my mother bought me my first chalkboard which was a memorable and very significant gift. However, up until 8th grade, I began to hear from adults who were influential in my life say that teaching was not a field I should pursue because in their words, “Teachers don’t make any money.” Therefore, I began to listen to those words, and decided to exchange my chalkboard for a stethoscope and pursue a field in medicine as a pediatrician.
However, I love that God will always confirm His word concerning His purpose. Teaching was the mountain of influence that I knew God had called me to make an impact since the age of four. At the age of fourteen, I began my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which was pivotal in Him leading me back to the path He had already carved for me. I share with my Gift Center cohorts and their families, that rather than asking children, “”What do you want to be when you grow up?” the better question is “Who has God made you to be already?” It is in that discovery that young people can begin to sharpen their God given gifts, steward those God given gifts, and operate in those God given gifts for the glory of God. At the age of 18, literally a few weeks before my high school graduation, the Lord spoke to me while sitting in my AP British Literature class. He said, “Larissa, I did not make you for medicine; I made you to teach.” Hearing God’s voice that day changed the trajectory of my life and ultimately led me to major in Education and Spanish in college. After completing my first year of college at the University of Georgia, a woman of God prophesied to me that following summer, “God is going to use you to lead a lot of young people.”
After graduating from UGA, I knew that Lord was leading me to ministry and I wanted to be better equipped for what He had prepared for me to do. In the summer of 2011, while I was a graduate student in Bible college at Beulah University, I took a class called Organizational Leadership with Dr. Bruce Tucker, one of my absolute favorite classes and professors that year. The topic for our final paper that summer was “If you could lead any organization, what would it be?” Naturally, I told the Lord that if there is any organization that I would love to lead, it would be a school.
In 2014, God opened a door for me to serve as the International Baccalaureate and Gifted Coordinator for the Clarke County School District in Athens, Georgia. When I learned that gifted students from diverse cultural background at my school were underrepresented in the AP Program and Advanced Level course at the school, I established and led the Gifted Minorities Achieving Initiative which provided support for culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families with the academic, social, and emotional support that is unique to this demographic of gifted students. This experience was not only a powerful opportunity to be an agent of change in the field of education, but God used it to spark a new passion in my heart to lead and shepherd the next generation of Christ followers from all cultural backgrounds because talent is found in all cultural groups!
On August 3, 2016, while driving home from work on Highway 316, the Lord dropped in my heart: “The Gift Center: Your gift will make room for you.” The Gift Center Leadership Academy is founded on the scripture, Proverbs 18:16. On that day the idea for the Gift Center, the 21st century Leadership Academy, was conceived! Over the course of four years, God began to download the blueprint, vision, and mission for the Gift Center. He told me that Gift Center would not be a traditional school, but would be very unique in function and purpose in the equipping of the next generation of leaders.
On August 1, 2020, the Gift Center welcomed its first cohort of gifted public, private, and homeschool scholar leaders! We are now preparing to welcome our 5th cohort of 9th & 10th grade scholars for the Fall of 2024-Spring 2025 instructional year! The Gift Center Leadership Academy provides gifted 9th & 10th grade scholars with ten months of individualized leadership development, Christ centered discipleship, and customized college and career readiness.
Additionally, since our inaugural cohort, we also have provided private college and career coaching for gifted 11th & 12th grade scholars, helped scholars get accepted in their dream colleges( UGA, GA Tech, Penn State, and Penn State to name a few!) , assisted gifted scholars with scholarships, have built strong relationships with community leaders, and have launched our Gift Center Parent University. This journey continues to be nothing short of a blessing!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Oh my goodness! There have definitely been bumps along the road! But, I am grateful that the bumps along the road were opportunities for God to step in and open another door. When Lord downloaded the blueprint for the Gift Center, I remember Him telling me specifically that the Gift Center would not be a “traditional” school. He told me that this school would provide unique services for families with children in the homeschool, public, and private school sector.
After receiving the vision and mission of the Gift Center in 2016, one of the challenges was waiting until God’s perfect timing to launch the Gift Center. Much to my surprise, when the global pandemic hit in March of 2020, God said to me, “GO! NOW IS THE TIME! LAUNCH!” I remember asking God, “You want me to launch the Gift Center in a pandemic?!” God knew that the pandemic was the perfect time to launch the Gift Center! This journey as an entrepreneur has taught me that God’s ways are truly higher than our ways and sometimes what seems crazy is really God! As parents and scholars were now forced to do remote learning, I was able to reach out to parents about some of their pain points and needs for their scholar in the areas of mentorship, college and career readiness, and leadership development and serve very unique and pressing academic needs for families.
Moreover, during the season of the pandemic with the social distancing and health concerns for children and their families, many parents were worried about sending their children back to any physical buildings to learn. But I am grateful that in our inaugural cohort we were able to serve scholars from all three target sectors even in a pandemic! I believe that parents are still experiencing the ripple effect from the pandemic as it pertains to academics and interpersonal skills in their youth. When I look back, I understand why the Lord needed the Gift Center to launch in the summer of 2020. Because the pandemic changed and challenged everything we once knew, The Gift Center has had the privilege to help the next generation of 9th-12th gifted leaders to truly discover their God given gifts, sharpen their gifts, steward their gifts, and operate in their gifts for the glory of God. All Gift Center scholars have a God ordained Mountain of Influence that they are called to impact! We are honored to be the 21st Century Leadership Academy entrusted to equip the Josephs, the Daniels, the Esthers, the Davids, the Deborahs, and the Nehemiahs of today!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an ordained minister, a licensed educator of 17 years, a speaker, and a published author. I recently published my second book, Lessons Learned as a Daughter of the King on December 27, 2023. I officially released this sophomore project on Purim, March 23, 2024. I published my first book, Lessons Learned as a Bridesmaid in 2011. Both books are a part of my book series, Lessons Learned. I have a heart to disciple and mentor single women, college girls, and young girls. Therefore, I launched WAIT Training Ministries for single women in 2005 and JR WAIT Training in 2014. WAIT Training provides discipleship and mentorship programs, books, resources, and our signature WAIT Training Boot Camp Conference for single women. I love helping God’s daughters walk in their royal identity and fully walk in their purpose and destiny! As one of the pastors at my church, Nations 360 Church, I love to teach and preach God’s Word, edify the Body of Christ, and pour into the young women and girls entrusted to my care. With a deep love for liturgical dance, I am also a Dancing Preacher and founded In Him Liturgical Dance Ministry that equips liturgical dance leaders and dancing preachers.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I love this question because this is part of the title of my second book, Lessons Learned as a Daughter of the King, and my first book, Lessons Learned as a Bridesmaid! I would say that the greatest lesson that I have learned along the way is that despite the many hats that I wear and various roles that I play in the lives of others that I love, I am a Daughter of the King first! My identity in God as His daughter, through Jesus Christ, has become the anchor in my life and the lens through which I see the world. There was a time when I would equate my value and worth with what I did. However, as my relationship with God has deepened down through the years, God has helped me to realize that sonship in the Kingdom is the highest position we have as children of God. Because of whose I am, I know who I am and can show up in each season of life knowing that I am loved by God, I am provided for by God, I am protected by God, I am kept by God, and I have been chosen by God. Knowing that I am God’s girl and that He is my Abba Father has truly transformed my life, particularly in the last 12 years of my life. Knowing my identify in the Lord has birthed rest in my heart, and has renewed my confidence to continue to step out in purpose and destiny. My identity in Christ anchors me and gives me the strength to faithfully steward The Gift Center, WAIT Training Ministries, the ministry of liturgical dance, teach and preach, and to write books in the Kingdom of God. I truly bless God for the joy to do things He has called me to to for for His glory!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thegiftcenter1816.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegiftcenter1816/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGiftCenter1816
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bridesmaid22
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/LarissaDJean/
Image Credits
Image Credit to Mikhaela Slavik Photography and Larissa Dayana Jean
