I noticed an ad on social media looking for Junior Achievement (JA) volunteers. In a past life, I was a Junior Achievement volunteer at both Central and West Middle Schools and facilitated one class at the high school too. These were most positive experiences. One former student became a leader in the religious community. I remember one student who would eventually become the executive director at our Community Y. I was even humbled by being inducted into their Junior Achievement Hall of Fame, a most memorable recognition for the hours of volunteer service. This form of community service is most admirable, and positively beneficial to the impressionable minds. I highly recommend this as a valuable use of one’s time.
The curriculum is prepared, with some wiggle room for one’s creativity, ideal for someone who can bring their work and life experiences into the classroom. One of the exercises I used in the class was when I handed out Monopoly (JA) money, and the students could buy stocks. I would follow the selected stocks, and we would see who made or lost money. Volunteers were allowed to bring candy into the classroom, so I would stop at a local store and pick up “handouts” while we calculated profit and/or loss. Savor the profit and salve the loss with chocolate.
When one searches the internet for the Junior Achievement website, their mission is, “to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.” After all, isn’t that what education is about? The business teachers I worked with saw value in “a different voice” when it came to issues in business. In one of my classes, the teacher told me I had reached a student with the stock exercise that had previously been aloof. It made me feel really good.
No subject was avoided. Students asked about ethics in the workplace, sometimes, a very difficult topic. I covered the policies at my workplace at the time and talked about abuses. Yes, hit the topic square so as not to avoid a difficult issue. For balance, I also covered the contributions from businesses that can go relatively unnoticed. Many times, the positive contributions get much less coverage than the abuses.
A thought provoking statement that expresses JA’s focus is, “JA’s volunteer-delivered, kindergarten-12th grade learning experience foster work readiness, (something employers would rate very high), entrepreneurship, (something I love), and financial literary skills, and use experiential learning to inspire students in our community to dream big and reach their potential.”
A company called Ipsos performed research for Junior Achievement. Some notable results from the alumni survey:
Men and women JA alumni are equally likely to say they were positively impacted in some way by the JA program (92% of men and 87% of women) and, all demographic groups said they somewhat or strongly agree that the JA program was a great experience, exposed them to new ways of thinking, broadened their horizons, showed them new work or career opportunities, and motivated them to succeed and learn.
