For many years, I’ve been a supporter and volunteer of Junior Achievement (JA).  I’ve had the opportunity to teach the JA curriculum locally and have volunteered to raise funds for the organization.  WHY?  Because I've seen and experienced the difference that the JA program/curriculum makes in the education of our youth.  The curriculum teaches valuable lessons for students such as how to manage money, what a business operation looks like, how careers and jobs in our community make our lives easier and other important topics.  I've experienced the eyes of students light up when they realize they have the desire of managing their own business.  I've seen first-hand the satisfaction that students get from working together in teams to handle hypothetical business or engineering issues and come away with a viable solution.  It's a great feeling to be a part of this and to be positively influencing the next generation of entrepreneurs, community leaders and employees.