Junior Achievement®
300 students
10 local high schools
150 mentors

Word Readiness | Entrepreneurship | Financial Literacy

Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to giving students the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success. Their programs are delivered by community volunteers and provide relevant, hands-on experiences to teach students three pillars: financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. If we truly want to make our communities a better place with lower poverty and crime rates and higher education and achievement, we have to become more involved in the children of our community. JA provides that opportunity by training adults to serve as role models. Mentors set positive examples for students, which in turn, helps them make smarter, more informed decisions in the future.

Work Readiness: JA teaches “soft skills,” such as collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creative problem solving. Nearly 1/3 JA alumni credit JA for giving them an idea of what kind of career they wanted to pursue.
JA research and impact studies show former JA students have higher educational attainment and are more career ready than their peers.
-98% are more interested in attending College or Technical School after participating in JA Job Shadow
-95% felt more workforce ready or knew how to prepare to be

Entrepreneurship: 100% of students who participated in the afterschool program felt more positively about business ownership and their ability to start their own business! Startups are responsible for 20% of gross job creation and JA Alumni research shows former JA students are 143% more likely to become entrepreneurs.

Financial Literacy: 1 in 4 Americans assume too much college debt to repay, so the United States has $1.3 trillion in college debt. Only 2/5 adults use a budget to manage personal finances. 1/3 carry a credit card balance month to month. 1/4 Americans assume too much college debt to ever repay. Combined, these and other factors are resulting in the inability of too many Americans to be financially secure enough to save for retirement, cover medical expenses, or deal with unexpected emergencies without risk of bankruptcy or other financial challenges.

Junior Achievement programs are driven by volunteers. These student mentors help students understand the importance of education and planning both financially and academically for their futures. This knowledge paired with a role model bring about an invaluable attitudinal change in our students as they begin to connect what they are learning in the classroom with the real world.

To get involved or request additional information, contact:

Carly Koen, Director of Community Engagement
carly.koen@janla.org or 903-918-9149