WVVA Hometown Hero: Mercer County native wins Businessperson of the Year and an audience with President Biden
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. - (WVVA-TV) Jill Scarbro was a member of the final graduating class of Athens High School before the consolidation that created the current Pikeview High School. Her struggles with a learning disability lead her to a path to help other children after she graduated in 1994, “...My goal has always been to be able to help kids like me who needed specialized intervention, so that was always the goal,” said Scarbro.
Scarbro is the owner and director of Bright Futures Learning Services and Macoy Academy in Putnam county. She translated her degree in education and masters in applied behavioral analysis into a thriving business specializing in mental impairments and physical challenges for students in primary and secondary schools, “...My goal has always been to be able to help kids like me who needed specialized intervention, so that was always the goal. I remember the feeling of being called retarded, being called dumb. I remember my mom, especially being blamed for it and questioning, you know, her parenting, skills, and family situations, being blamed for why I wasn’t performing well,” Scarbro said, adding she’ll never forget what her parents went through in the public education system, " I remember how hard they worked to get me help and how much they sacrificed to get me help and, that is 100% of the fuel that I go, no kid should ever feel that way. I feel less than, dumb, and no parent should be blamed, and they shouldn’t have to fight as hard as they had to fight just to get me what I needed.” said Scarbro.
Scarbro’s business thrived and in 2019 she was named West Virginia’s Small Business Administration’s Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year Award . In the spring of 2022, she was named the Small Businessperson of the Year by the SBA in Washington, D.C, earning Scarbro an invitation to the White House this year to introduce President Joe Biden. Scarbro also addressed the audience as well as part of the celebration of National Small Business Week,” It was kind of an out of body, experience of, because it’s a overwhelming, and you’re going, “no, really. I’m really in the oval office with the president and the vice president at the same time hanging in the oval. And I still go, no, that really happened. And it’s kind of crazy and I need to go back to it and watch it myself to go, no, that was real. It was, it was crazy! And it was cool too, because I think it was kind of a break for them, right, the business of the day was whatever banking crisis , and so we got to experience them just as human beings, and that the president was very chill. He was very kind and warm and he was like, no, just called me Joe. " Scarbro said.
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