Florida Power and Light (FPL) Sparking New Possibilities: FPL’s JA World Discovery Park Storefront

Nurturing a healthy pipeline of future talent is essential to an organization’s long-term success — and the Florida Power and Light (FPL) team made strong strides in fueling theirs by immersing 20,000+ eighth graders in hands-on learning fun at the 2025 Junior Achievement (JA) World Discovery Park Storefront.

Powering Future Generations

FPL is the state’s largest power utility, with 5 million customers and 8,000 employees. When a high-profile sponsorship opportunity arose with JA World, enabling FPL to connect students ‘ current educational choices to their future economic success, FPL and Starmark were all in!

Junior Achievement USA prepares young people with the knowledge, ability and confidence to navigate career and financial literacy. The South Florida branch is the largest nationwide and has impacted more than 1.2 million students since its inception in 1959. Each year, the organization holds JA World Career Discovery Park. The 60,000 sq. ft. JA World “storefronts” are room-size build outs, designed as a charming streetscape of storefronts. Each storefront represents a major South Florida employer or industry.

Igniting Their Interest

JA World offered FPL the ideal setting to illuminate a wide range of dynamic career possibilities — from engineering to marketing to mission-critical drone operations. Our goals: compel students to spend quality time at the installation and open their minds to rewarding energy career paths. Since each student visits all the JA World storefronts, we had limited time to make an impact.

Today’s students, as digital natives, are most at home with visual content and gamified education. Yet, the real world is tactile and dimensional too. So Starmark ideated a strategic blend of both that would stand out from all other flat, static storefronts. Leading-edge digital tech was combined with tangible FPL artifacts, like a rover and transformer, to build a unique, multi-faceted learning experience. Once we developed the strategy and installation elements, we created scale models in VR to test our concepts.

Amping Up Excitement

Our strategy and execution:

• Keep it hands-on: transform mundane career information into interactive fun.
• Keep it moving: short interactions and multiple stations to hold attention and interest.
• Keep it energetic: gaming challenges and team activities that weren’t dry or dull.

Starting Strong

As soon as students approached our space, “Welcome! It’s going to be a high-energy day.” set their expectations. Upon entering, 360 degrees of immersive engagement surrounded them.

Seven High-Energy Installations

Each experience was interactive, engaging and fun, fulfilling our “high-energy” welcome promise.

FPL Command Center With Drone

Our mini version of a real-life FPL Command Center housed six working monitors. These included a power device status map, power grid data readouts, flight traffic, weather, drone operations, and maintenance/repair activity log:

• The introductory video outlined their critical mission: a team of three students would work together to solve an urgent power grid issue.
• We suspended a working drone and assigned a role to each student on the 3-person team:
  • Flight operations: ensuring it’s safe to fly the drone
  • Flight operator: piloting and looking for the grid issue
  • Repair specialist: documenting/logging the issue to dispatch a maintenance crew

“Future Self” Augmented Reality

Discovery Park wants each child to picture themselves in future careers. We embraced that goal with an augmented reality (AR) station where visitors literally saw themselves in an energy career:

• Students step up to two life-sized monitors.
• AR tech dresses the user in one of four outfits matched to a role: Environmental Specialist, Data Scientist, Nuclear Technician and Renewable Energy Engineer.
• Outfits are displayed in a video loop while displaying fast facts about each career.

Line Worker Photo Opp

Hard hats and neon vests worn in sky-high workplace settings: the traditional FPL line worker is among the company’s most recognized roles. Our photo opp leveraged this popular image:

• We invited students to don the line worker gear and pose inside an FPL bucket truck prop.
• The roofline backdrop and visual perspective trick makes it seem as if they are 30 feet up.
• This photo opp was a HUGE hit with the kids!

Career Profiles

There’s a role for every student’s talent and interest at FPL and to emphasize that, we wrapped pony walls with the message profiles of actual FPL employees:

• The core message: “Power your passion. Fuel your dreams.”
• Walls showcased diverse careers, from Marketing Specialist to Arborist to Data Scientist, with short descriptions and salary ranges.
• Creative or STEM, in office or outdoors, it’s easy to see a bright future for everyone at FPL.

Home Energy Specialist

Hot water heaters, AC, washers, dryers and entertainment systems are a staple in most homes. This hands-on learning activity transformed our eighth graders into home energy experts:

• Students flipped switches in a living area vignette to see which appliances drew the most energy. The power meter steadily tracks their progress.
• Once all four appliances are set to their optimal settings, users are rewarded with a success animation on the meter.

Follow the Flow of Electricity

We flip a switch and power turns on. But how does it get to our outlets and appliances?

• Our “Follow the Flow of Electricity” mural shows students the steps electricity takes: from power plant to service line to the hand hole outside their homes.
• They also learn the names and purpose of all the equipment they’ve likely seen every day, without ever realizing what it was for.

“House Of Savings” Energy Usage Simulator

Now students will know why moms and dads nag us to close that fridge door or turn off that light! You’re never too young to learn about saving energy:

• We updated the content and visuals of FPL’s “House of Savings” online tool to appeal to eighth-grade audiences.
• They see how to optimize energy usage and lower the cost; bonus win for mom and dad!

Powering Workforce Development

Initiatives like JA World are smart long-term strategies: they seed future pipeline development at early stages, sparking awareness at a formative time when children are just starting to explore their interests and talents. As our young audience matures in the next decade, they will start firming up their career path and even becoming FPL customers.

Kids who are educated, prepared to lead, inspired to learn, develop, think innovatively…that is what will power Florida’s future. Partnering with Starmark this year empowered us to deepen our support for the valuable contribution JA World makes and elevate our own impact to a whole new level.

— Juliet Murphy Roulhac, Esq., FPL’s External Director, Senior Affairs & Corporate Philanthropy

FPL’s JA World Discovery Park Storefront was a big success and met all goals set, establishing FPL as a rewarding employer and community partner; introducing the brand to 20,000+ students; and sending each one back home with a new perspective on the rewarding possibilities ahead.