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WHAT IS JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT?
JA Worldwide (Junior Achievement) is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics, and free enterprise. JA Worldwide programs are taught by volunteers in class and after-school at locations throughout the United States and in 98 countries.
CORE PURPOSE: To inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.
PROGRAMS: Programs span grades K-12, and focus on The Three Pillars of Student Success: Entrepreneurship, Work Readiness, and Financial Literacy.
PROGRAM REACH: Through over 140 U.S. Area Offices, JA Worldwide reaches four million students per year in inner cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Internationally, JA Worldwide reaches another 2.6 million students per year in over 100 countries.
SCOPE: JA Worldwide programs are welcomed by teachers in more than 252,000 classrooms around the world each year.
ABOUT THE VOLUNTEERS: JA Worldwide's 178,000 classroom volunteers come from all walks of life and include business people, college students, and retirees. These dedicated individuals are the backbone of the organization.
PROVEN SUCCESS: JA Worldwide is one of a few global non-profits to use independent, third-party evaluators to gauge the impact of its programs. Since 1993, independent evaluators have conducted studies on JA’s impact. Findings prove that JA has a positive influence in a number of critical areas. These results are free and available upon request. Summaries of the findings also are published in the JA Programs section of www.ja.org.
A BRIEF HISTORY: JA Worldwide was founded in 1919 by Theodore Vail, president of American Telephone & Telegraph; Horace Moses, president of Strathmore Paper Co.; and Senator Murray Crane of Massachusetts. Its first program, JA Company Program™,was offered to high school students on an after-school basis. In 1975, the organization entered the classroom with the introduction of Project BusinessSM for the middle grades. During the past 30 years, JA Worldwide has expanded its activities and broadened its scope to include in-school and after-school students in grades K-12.
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