Nearly 150 metro Atlanta high school students worked feverishly on a common goal: to devise a phone application designed to help lower the U.S. high school drop-our rate. This challenge was posed to students attending JA Innovation Camp, an overnight lock-in that presents a business challenge to teams of high school students. JA Innovation Camp, held at Oglethorpe University on June 15, 2010, was organized by Junior Achievement of Georgia and sponsored by Nokia and Turner.
Students worked in teams of 10, and were assisted by volunteer mentors and experts from Nokia and GE in the field of marketing, finance and IT. Each team had unique solutions to address the social and academic challenges high school students face. Ideas included: access to free, online counseling for students coping with social issues such as teen pregnancy, drug addiction and challenging home lives; audio recordings lessons on a variety of topics for students who are struggling academically; and an application designed to inspire students to graduate and attend college by matching them with professionals in fields that match their skills and interest. After designing their “app” and developing a basic business plan, teams presented to a panel of judges.
The winning team, who dubbed their application “Nokia Connect” proposed a product that is essentially an alarm clock for homework assignments designed to help students who struggle with organization and, as a result, are in danger of failing. For this application, teachers would enter their homework agenda, and the application would then send students a reminder. The application would continue to send reminders every hour until the student indicated he or she had finished.
“As adults we talk a great deal about our country’s high school drop out rate and yet we rarely have the opportunity to get input into solutions from the students themselves. The participants of JA Innovation Camp displayed incredible creativity in addressing one of society’s deepest challenges,” said Jack Harris, president of Junior Achievement of Georgia.
The camp’s challenge was particularly timely, as employment options for individuals without a high school diploma become increasingly scarce and state and local governments put increased emphasis on addressing high school non-completion. Diplomas Count 2008, a report from the EPE Research Center, states that only 70.6 percent of U.S. students complete high school.
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