What a year!

It was a wonderful 2015 at JA of Georgia. Here are a few of the things we accomplished with the help of our volunteers and sponsors:

• Launch of the JA-MBA, an immersive high school experience that meets traditional common core standards through experiential and interdisciplinary studies. The first freshman class at Banneker High School is made up of 130 students who want a more authentic high school experience; to leave with something greater than a diploma.

• Opened our second JA Discovery Center, bringing the impact of these centers to 60 % of middle school students state wide. The JA Discovery Center at Gwinnett will serve more than 25,000 middle school students a year, thanks to partnerships with over 100 companies and organizations in the Gwinnett community.

• Continued our JA High School Leaders program that will serve over 65,000 students this year.

• JA Fellows is back with driven students and great products.

Publix Supermarket Charities gives $41,000 to support JA of Georgia learning solutions

Publix Super Markets Charities has given more than $41,000 through their ongoing partnership with Junior Achievement (JA) of Georgia to support various learning solutions. Publix Super Markets Charities has maintained a storefront sponsorship in JA Finance Park at the JA Chick-fil-A Foundation Discovery Center since 2013, and they opened a storefront space in August in JA Finance Park presented by Assurant at the JA Discovery Center at Gwinnett. 

Their storefront offers middle school students the opportunity to experience their financial futures first hand. JA Finance Park arms students with the knowledge to budget, save and invest through an immersive and authentic simulation experience. After being given a life scenario with details such as their education level, income and family structure, students must decide how to save, spend and invest their money at 18 different businesses. Their decisions range from needs like housing and food, to wants like entertainment and luxury cars. 

At the Publix store, students make budgeting decisions around providing food for themselves and their families. Do they have enough room in the budget for fresh produce every week, or do they need to make compromises elsewhere to achieve a healthy diet? What is the cost difference in preparing meals at home versus eating meals out? These are just a few of the questions that volunteers help students answer during their time in the Publix store. 

Publix Super Markets Charities’ support of JA’s learning solutions goes beyond their storefront sponsorships in the metro-Atlanta area. The grant funding supports learning solutions across multiple regions in the state, including the Southern Coastal, Northwest, Northeast and West Central Georgia areas, to help JA serve nearly 170,000 students annually. 

Teaching teens comprehensively about money

Published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on 9/23/15

Jack Harris, President & CEO, JA of Georgia

Are we doing everything we can as a community to ensure today’s students are prepared for the demands of tomorrow’s economy? This question is frequently deliberated by parents, educators, business leaders, and community activists.

With the rapid shifts in technology and connectivity, many of our children will be applying for jobs that do not exist today. Beyond this, only 11 percent of business leaders strongly believe that recent graduates have the skills to meet their current needs.

These intensified demands will not be solely linked to the workplace. The shifts will continue to heighten the complexity of the economic environment and require greater understanding to successfully navigate financial intricacies.

Atlanta currently ranks highest in the nation for income inequality. Even more astounding is that a person born into poverty in Atlanta has less than a 5 percent chance of upward mobility. Clearly, we cannot continue on this trajectory. Our children deserve more than a 5 percent chance to achieve the American Dream.

If a child never has the opportunity to experience a prosperous future, how do we expect them to deem it a possibility? If a student does not understand the relevance of standard curriculum, how do we expect them to stay engaged?

We have to provide meaningful opportunities that engage students in education and equip them to become financially independent, building a better future for themselves and the community.

Across various sectors, groups have taken steps to address these issues, and progress has been made. Yet, overall awareness among the public continues to lack. Envision the possibilities if everybody leaned in.

Imagine a generation where young people, no matter their background, know how to budget, save, and invest; a generation of tenacious individuals armed with the confidence, knowledge and capabilities to take control of their financial futures, their careers, and achieve their dreams.

To achieve this there is no single bullet. Transformational shifts cannot rest solely on the efforts of a school, school district, business or industry. To provide sustainable solutions that reverberate throughout metro Atlanta this must be a collaborative effort among the entire community.

Late August the second Junior Achievement Discovery Center was launched in metro Atlanta. These centers are collective efforts from five school districts, including Atlanta Public Schools, DeKalb County Schools, Fulton County Schools, Gwinnett County Public Schools and Marietta City Schools, more than 70 partners, such as Assurant, AT&T, Chick-fil-A, Cisco, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, and SunTrust, and 11,000 volunteers. Through these efforts, more than 60 percent of metro Atlanta middle school students are provided opportunities to develop skills for financial and professional success in an unmatched learning environment that is highly relevant, experiential, and authentic.

When students understand how academic lessons apply to the real world, they are more motivated in the classroom and ultimately achieve higher academic success. Since 2013, 65,000 students have experienced the JA Discovery Center, and the results show these programs produce mindful shifts. Ninety percent of students state that they now connect the relevance of education to future opportunities. Months following the simulations nine out of 10 teachers observe a sustained higher level of engagement and effort by their students.

The JA Discovery Centers have become a platform to re-imagine the high school experience. JA and Fulton County Schools recently partnered to launch the Junior Achievement Magnet Business Academy at Banneker High School. This program takes key aspects from the centers and applies them into the daily learning experience. The first class of students have accepted the challenge and are already excelling in their interdisciplinary studies.

True learning comes from doing, and when given the right tools there are no bounds to the potential of our youth. There is no greater cause for our community than the future of our children. I invite you to join JA, school systems and our partners, and become part of the movement to redefine a generation and place all students on a path to success.