JA Worldwide
Junior Achievement offers FCS students the opportunity to teach elementary students with curriculum focusing on individuals, families, and communities.
Founded in 1919, JA Worldwide targets the business and economics of free enterprise. For more than 50 years, the curriculum was JA Company Program , an experiential, hands-on, set of activities / lessons designed to teach students how companies work from the raising of capital through stock sales to the making of products to sell. Adult volunteers lead student-run operations. While this program continues to present day , in 1975, the organization entered the classroom. Over the past 30 years, JA has expanded its activities and broadened its scope to include in-school and after-school programs for students in grades K-12.
The Opportunity
JA is an excellent venue to connect FCS students to their community. As a service-learning experience, high school students are placed in a challenging, teaching situation where they associate with elementary teachers and strengthen their FCS studies. FCS students apply their skills in the world beyond the school's walls. Junior Achievement makes classroom study relevant. The opportunity is fashioned for students who are interested in teaching to work together with elementary teachers in presenting curriculum and serve as role models for students. High school students and elementary school teachers engage in meaningful dialogue and develop trust and respect for each other in the process of working toward common goals.
Both student and teacher recognize needed skills and knowledge to contribute to the classroom and society through the role of a classroom volunteer. Awareness and acceptance of significant roles for youth in the community are powerful forces in dispelling the sense of isolation and alienation so many young people experience today.
Programs
JA is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics, and free enterprise. All JA programs are taught by volunteer role models in the classroom and in after-school locations throughout the United States and in 98 countries worldwide. With FCS students as volunteers delivering JA curriculum, elementary students not only gain access to needed programs but also to high school role models from their
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JA Worldwide neighborhoods. Elementary schools are linked with neighboring high schools to create a local partnership that makes sense.
Students learn by “doing”, resulting in a higher retention of subject matter. While service in the community is an impressive experience, students are also performing meaningful work for the elementary student. High school students develop and apply new skills, try on different roles, and plan – constantly reinforcing connections between academic learning and the “real world.”
A JA volunteer brings a high level of interaction with students utilizing low or no cost methods such as service learning and cross-age teaching. High school students enhance their literacy skills and those of the elementary children to whom they present lessons and stories.
JA’s curricula aligns with state and national standards making it a natural fit for schools, taught by a community role model. JA Worldwide is one of a few national not-for-profit organizations to use independent, third party evaluators to gauge the impact of its programs. Since 1993, the
Worldwide Institute for Research and Evaluation has conducted studies on JA’s impact on students. Findings prove that JA has a positive influence in a number of critical areas. These results are available, for free, upon request.
Individuals, Families, Communities
All JA programs are research based and range from Kindergarten through 12 th grade to prepare students with the skills to be productive as individuals, and members of a family, community, and workforce. Programs for grades K-2, Ourselves , Our Families , and Our Community , are contextual for FCS students. Each of these programs consists of five activities. Students understand why they have to learn something and have the tools from JA to apply their learning to everyday life.
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Ourselves explains personal economics through a collection of short stories read aloud to kindergartners by the high school student. Concepts covered include the role of self, teamwork, money & coins, rewards, and the value of work and giving.
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Our Families emphasizes the roles people play in the local economy as well as how they work together to make the place they live a good place. Concepts addressed include families, needs and wants, and map symbols.
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JA Worldwide
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Our Community explores the interdependent roles of workers in a community and how communities work. Concepts encompass the identification of various jobs and how people live and work together in a community, making decisions, voting, as well as unit and assembly line production.
Training
In the role of a JA volunteer, SCANS competencies are reinforced through the enhancement of school-to-career transition skills. This includes essential elements of preparation and reflection that give a service-learning opportunity its educational integrity. High school students are selected based on a variety of different factors: grades, participation, relevant coursework, behavior, and/or a desire to teach or work with younger students. All high school students are required to attend at least one training session and have the time to study their JA teaching materials well in advance of their classroom experience. Whenever possible, the high school students are partnered in groups of two to teach the K-2 classes, exhibiting teamwork to the elementary students. Cutting edge methods of cooperative learning and the use of journaling for reflection on their practice, the teaching concepts, and personal opinions add to the overall experience. All of this is done in the context of the high school curricula as well as predetermined learning goals of the elementary school through use of the JA programs.
Funding
JA programs are provided at no cost to schools. The way this occurs is through fundraising with local businesses and corporations that sponsor JA classes with dollars that provide materials and by providing personnel as volunteers. Sometimes businesses and corporations cannot provide both. In those occasions, corporate dollars provide schools the curriculum and high schools students step in as the volunteer. It is critical that JA find sponsorship for materials.
While Junior Achievement continues with its signature JA Company Program it also offers premiere opportunities for students to engage in service learning, explore careers, and build character through citizenship and work-related life skills to improve the quality of their lives and learning. Let their success be your inspiration!
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JA Worldwide
Need Go to www.ja.org
and click on, JA Near You. Contact your Junior Achievement office.
 The local JA area office assists in determining the need for high school volunteers in the local elementary schools to deliver K-2 JA programs.
(From a recent survey of U.S. Junior Achievement offices, it was estimated that an average of 1,000 elementary students per local JA area do not have JA programs
because volunteers are unavailable.)
Learning
 The local JA area office assists in determining the feasibility of training high school students as volunteers in local elementary schools.
Volunteering for Junior Achievement using the Ourselves, Our Families, and Our
Community curricula gives students the opportunity to make a difference in their Family
Service and Consumer Sciences education by integrating academic and higher order learning skills of critical thinking and problem solving in a hands-on exploration of the teaching career.
Participants FCS students are selected and partnered based on a variety of different factors including participation in relevant coursework, behavior, and /or a desire to mentor younger students.
All JA volunteers attend at least one training session and have time to study their JA teaching materials well in advance of the elementary classroom experience. The implementation may occur once per week over the course of five weeks; in a one day event
– delivering the JA materials over the course of the day; or in an implementation designed
Reflection by all involved.
Students journal their thoughts, opinions, and questions after each session in which they participate. Junior Achievement staff offer program support, organization, scheduling, and communication.
Evaluation The experience is evaluated by all involved to include Junior Achievement, elementary students, high school and elementary school teachers, and high school student volunteers.
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