Junior Achievement is a non-profit organization that provides supplementary education to participating schools through the use of volunteers on the topics of:

• Financial Literacy – the ability to understand how money works in the world: how someone manages to earn or make it, how that person manages it, how he/she invests it and how that person donates it to help others.
• Work Readiness – being able to deliver value in front line jobs and workplaces.
• Entrepreneurship – the process of designing, launching and running a new business offering a product, process or service for sale or hire.

A volunteer does not have to have “business” experience. In fact, it is beneficial to have volunteers with different experiences and working styles. The majority of the JA lessons cover topics that we discuss with our children on a daily basis. These topics include:

• Learning how to save and spend money wisely
• Character traits employers will look for when they get their first job
• Exploring the pros and cons of different career paths

Changes for School Year 2016 – 2017
You spoke, we listened! Starting this year, Junior Achievement will run from October 2016 – March / April 2017. There are 5 classes to teach for grades K-5 and 6 classes for grades 6-8. This new schedule provides much more flexibility for volunteers and teachers. A volunteer can teach one lesson per month and still be on schedule to finish by the end of the year. We feel this change will be popular with volunteers!

I’m Interested! What Do I Need to Do?
Volunteers who have completed the background check and are Virtus trained may sign up for a class that they are interested in teaching on Helpcounter. Then the volunteer and the teacher will coordinate the times and dates for the JA volunteer to present the lessons. If a date needs to be rescheduled, please be sure to contact your teacher with as much notice as possible as he or she will need to rework the lesson plan for that day.

Volunteers will also need to register as a volunteer with Junior Achievement. This is quite easy. It takes about 3 minutes to fill out the form.
http://www.myja.org/volunteers/registration/

Training and Materials for Volunteers
The local chapter of Junior Achievement provides one bag of course materials (lesson plans, visual aids, game boards and pieces) for each classroom. Each bag contains enough supplies for at least 30 students. They also provide training in person and over the phone to support volunteers. If you are unable to attend training, the classroom materials do a good job of providing volunteers with everything they need to be successful.