I have been involved with Junior Achievement since the early 1990s – WOW, that's nearly 30 years!
My involvement with JA started with the support of my employer allowing work hour flexibility to fit it in my schedule. I started out teaching one 5th grade class and moved on to teach the curriculum for classes from 2nd grade through high school. Initially, I saw it as a way to support and be involved in the school district where I lived and to feed the itch to teach (a career I never explored).
What I didn’t expect when I first volunteered with JA was how my eyes would be opened to the need for the lessons that JA delivers. Kids today have so very much to learn – everything I did when I was their age, but so much more due to technology and new information! Unfortunately, there isn’t any more time to learn today than when I was a kid. I commend our teachers for all that they are able to address and teach our kids! But the truth is that not all topics can be a priority; there is only so much time, and our schools have only so many resources.
I was really fortunate – not that I knew it or appreciated it at the time! I grew up on a dairy farm with parents that prioritized education. Because it was a family farm, they were both ”around” all the time and they involved me in the business at an early age. Among other things, they taught me a good work ethic, how to save for my future, and how to balance a checkbook, and they gave me a good understanding of responsibility. I saw and experienced many aspects of a business on a daily basis.
Not all kids are as fortunate, and families today are pulled in a lot of directions with great demands on time. Sometimes the daily lessons I took for granted cannot occur and fall behind other very real needs. JA fills the gaps and brings lessons about work readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills to kids that otherwise may not get them. And JA introduces kids to various businesses and careers they may want to prepare for and pursue.
JA has a role in helping the kids in our region learn and grow up to be successful. And if our kids can find economic success individually, that leads to success for our overall economy.
Just $25 sponsors JA education of one child annually, and JA Wisconsin Northwest Region has the potential to help educate 18,500 students.
Will you help build the economic success of our area kids?
