Columbia County and Richmond County School Boards Vote to Bring JA Discovery Center to Local Middle School Students

Augusta, GA – Junior Achievement of Georgia (JA), in partnership with Columbia County School District and Richmond County School System, announced today the unanimous approval by both Boards of Education to incorporate a JA Discovery Center into the Support Department Complex in Evans.

“We are thrilled with the decisions of each of these Boards that will allow us to move into the CSRA with significant presence and impact,” said John Hancock, President and CEO, JA of Georgia. “We are thankful for the commitment of these two visionary superintendents and their boards, and we look forward to providing unmatched learning experiences that enable students to discover the possibilities that their futures can hold.”

With opening planned in the Fall of 2023, the JA Discovery Center will serve 15,000 middle school students annually in the Central Savannah River Area of the state. The center will provide students continued exposure to their future possibilities through two innovative programs:

JA BizTown creates an unmatched experience where sixth grade students interact within a simulated economy and take on the challenge of running a business. Students not only discover the intricacies of being a professional and a member of the community, but also realize the abundance of opportunities available within their home town.

JA Finance Park provides seventh or eighth grade students the rare opportunity to experience being an adult and providing for the needs of a household. Guided by an assigned ‘life situation,’ students participate in a simulation that enables them to develop skills to successfully navigate today’s complex economic environment and discover how decisions today can impact tomorrow.

“We are very excited to be able to offer our students a culminating experience that extends

this area of learning to the real world through partnerships and connections with our local communities,” said Dr. Steve Flynt, Superintendent, Columbia County School District.

Richmond County School System superintendent, Dr. Kenneth Bradshaw, noted, “The opportunity to expose our students to businesses and careers that are right here in our area is remarkable.  Broadening their vision into what is possible will enable them to dream big and see the path to achieve those dreams.”

The construction of the center is possible through a joint partnership with JA, the Columbia County School District, and the Richmond County School System.

Currently JA Discovery Centers serve more than 120,000 students a year across five locations - the JA Chick-fil-A Foundation Discovery Center in Atlanta, the JA Discovery Center at Gwinnett, the Mike and Lynn Cottrell JA Discovery Center at North Georgia in Cumming, the JA Discovery Center of Greater Dalton, and the JA Colonial Group Discovery Center in Savannah.  These five locations bring the total impact to more than 45% of middle school students in Georgia.

About Columbia County School District

Columbia County School District (CCSD), is the 15th largest school district in the state and growing, with more than 28,600 students and 4,000 employees across 31 schools and one virtual academy. The CCSD is a leader in academic excellence in the state and the nation, focused on empowering and inspiring student achievement through innovative, relevant and lasting educational curriculum, experiences and opportunities. To learn more, visit www.ccboe.net

About Richmond County School System

Richmond County School System (RCSS) is committed to providing an equitable education and preparation for life beyond the classroom for all of the nearly 30,000 students learning in 56 schools and special programs across the district. RCSS offers flexible curriculum options to meet students’ interests and provides future workers to support a strong, local economy. Through teaching, learning, collaboration and innovation the school system is focused to ensure student academic achievement and success. For more information, visit rcboe.org.

Building real-world experiences for Georgia students

This article originally appeared in a feature in Blueprint Magazine.

It’s a typical morning in town. Offices, banks and stores bustle as people go to work and run errands. Whether it’s buying flooring, applying for a loan, or shipping a package, it’s all getting done inside a Junior Achievement Discovery Center—and the workers and shoppers are all middle schoolers.

Designed to immersive them in the experience of managing a business or a household, JA Discovery Centers are becoming integral components of middle school education, says Leela Woodfield, senior director of capital projects and construction for Junior Achievement of Georgia.

Woodfield has guided the construction of JA Discovery Centers from metropolitan Atlanta to Dalton and Savannah. In doing so, she’s discovered a way to impact local education.

“For someone who used to design parking lots and sewers, I’ve learned a lot about building construction,” Woodfield says. “I have the most fun job because I get to build these incredibly cool spaces.”

Making it real

JA programs start in sixth grade with JA BizTown. Students get 20 hours of in-class lessons on the world of work and running a company. Then, they apply what they learn during a one-day visit to a JA Discovery Center.

There, students are assigned jobs with one of the more than 100 sponsor companies that include Chick-fil-A, Georgia Power, UPS and Georgia United Credit Union. One enterprising student even contacted the CEO of Delta Air Lines to ask what he should expect as he assumed his role, Woodfield recalls.

The JA Finance Park program is for seventh or eighth grade students. Through the program, they are assigned real-life situations—marriages, families, incomes, student debt and credit scores, for example—and they must develop household budgets. During their visit to a JA Discovery Center, they play out their roles, managing their lives and finances.

The first JA Discovery Center, a 50,000-square-foot facility, was built in Atlanta in 2013. It serves students from Atlanta Public Schools as well as from Dekalb County and Fulton County schools.

Learning to build

A year later and at the time of her hiring in 2014, Woodfield didn’t expect to be involved in construction. In her previous job at Simpson Elementary School in Norcross (outside Atlanta), she had been the registrar, records manager and web manager, among other roles.

However, someone noticed her civil engineering and project management experience, and Woodfield quickly found herself guiding the construction of the JA Discovery Center at Gwinnett. The 45,000-square-foot facility was the first built on a school campus as part of the new Discovery High School in Lawrenceville.

After the project was completed in 2015, she began work on the Mike & Lynn Cottrell JA Discovery Center at North Georgia in Cumming. It opened in 2018 and serves students from schools in Gainesville and Calhoun City as well as Dawson, Forsyth, Hall and Lumpkin counties.

This year, the JA Discovery Center of Greater Dalton opened and serves 13,500 students in 13 school districts in northwest Georgia. While it also opened as a part of new school construction, the 15,000-square-foot facility is a separate building that was added to project plans, Woodfield says.

In February 2022, a JA Discovery Center will open on Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus in Savannah, built into what had been the student activities center.

Looking ahead

JA Discovery Centers resemble interior sets used for movies and TV shows. Each storefront or office façade is unique. Local landmarks—such as Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, Lawrenceville’s historic courthouse and Lake Lanier in Cumming—are part of the design, as are the sponsors’ brands.

“We don’t want it to look like students are walking into a cookie cutter space. We want them to feel like they’ve stepped into their hometown,” she says.

The JA Discovery Centers also reflect changes brought on by technology. Students get tablets for their assignment work. Paper registers used to record transactions are gone and stores have debit card swipe technology. The displays at Georgia Power now show “smart” home technology including sensors to control lighting and heating.

Woodfield updates the spaces to reflect rebranding by the sponsoring companies. Last summer, she led 21 changes at three JA Discovery Centers, which included incorporating Kia Motors’ new look in the Atlanta center.

“I am the glue to make sure all the vendors and contractors are on schedule,” Woodfield says. “I manage the project from the owner’s perspective.”

Building for careers

A native of College Park, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., Woodfield says she wanted to become an architect but adds she lacked the artistic talent. However, she excelled in math, physics and the sciences, and earned her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering technology from Southern College of Technology (now Kennesaw State University) in 1993.

After graduation, Woodfield joined Pond & Co. in Norcross, Georgia, as a project manager and engineer, helping build wireless telecommunications networks. From 1993 to 2003, she was a consultant, project manager and office manager there and for S & R Associates but stepped back after her two children were born.

Gwinnett County Public Schools allowed her to have a flexible work schedule, but Woodfield says she missed construction and project management. So, while she hadn’t expected to become the owner’s rep for building JA Discovery Centers, it’s been a welcome turn.

“Our mission is to inspire the futures of our students, prepare them for tomorrow’s economy,” Woodfield says. “I have a foot in the engineering and construction, but I also get to support our youth and partner with so many great companies as we design and carry out the space.”

Expanding impact through a commitment to caring

Students in the Chick-fil-A storefront in the JA Discovery Center at Gwinnett

By: John Hancock, President and CEO, Junior Achievement of Georgia

After the most trying year and a half in recent history, we’ve all taken a look at what matters most to us. For some, that has meant spending more time with loved ones. For others, it may have meant changing careers to something they are more passionate about.

For us at Junior Achievement (JA) of Georgia, and for many of our community partners like Chick-fil-A, it reinforced the importance of caring for people and continuing to strengthen our community partnerships. Everything we do at JA of Georgia is a joint partnership between our organization, school systems and local business partners.

Over the past 18 months, we have seen exceptional commitment and engagement from many of our partners. During a time when our education system experienced more challenges than ever, our partners rallied in support of the young people we serve to make the most of difficult circumstances. Delivering on our mission meant providing extra care to all who are impacted by our programs, even if that meant execution of that delivery looked different.

In recent months and throughout more than a decade, JA of Georgia has benefitted from the model of care demonstrated through our outstanding partnership with Atlanta-based company Chick-fil-A, Inc. Chick-fil-A was the catalyst that helped establish our first JA Discovery Center nearly a decade ago, and the company’s engagement, guidance and commitment since then has further fueled much of our impact and growth.

Rodney Bullard, the vice president of corporate social responsibility for Chick-fil-A, Inc., recently shared with me:

“At Chick-fil-A, we are committed to positively influencing the communities we serve. Our long-standing partnership with Junior Achievement reflects our appreciation for the remarkable work of this organization throughout the country, and we’re inspired by the potential collective impact we can have as together we continue to prepare young people to succeed in the future.”

Words of support and encouragement like this from valued partners like Chick-fil-A continually energize us to go above and beyond in our work. A perfect example is when life as we knew it came to a halt in early 2020, and we knew we had to provide new resources to our educators and students. We understood they were navigating an unprecedented learning environment, and we did anything but sit on the sidelines. We approached our work with a renewed sense of commitment and care, providing high-quality connections and experiences during a time when people needed them more than ever before. We converted our flagship programs to allow students to experience them virtually. Chick-fil-A associates participated online with our middle school and high school students by delivering financial literacy lessons, implementing business case challenges and offering small group career coaching sessions.

Throughout the rest of 2020, we maintained momentum towards our long-term strategic initiatives. In February 2021, we broke ground on the JA Colonial Group Discovery Center in Savannah, set to open in early 2022. Shortly thereafter in March, we opened the JA Discovery Center of Greater Dalton. In both cases, Chick-fil-A and a cohort of local Chick-fil-A Restaurant Operators played a large role in bringing our vision to life.  

We also opened three more 3DE by Junior Achievement high schools in the past year, bringing our total portfolio to 13 schools in Georgia and 28 schools nationally. Our goal with the 3DE instructional model is to make the high school experience more relevant, experiential and authentically connected to the real world. One of Chick-fil-A’s core values is to pursue what’s next, and they have been a major partner and investor in the creation of this innovative model, and our ability to continue to expand to more locations. In fact, the company was involved in all facets of this ongoing momentum with these primary strategic initiatives – funding, thought leadership, employee engagement and volunteerism.

Chick-fil-A’s involvement in and support of JA of Georgia epitomizes the very best of corporate philanthropy. The company’s comprehensive approach to caring for communities through public service creates significant impact in communities across the country and the world, and JA of Georgia is just one beneficiary of that commitment.

As we reflect on the past year and a half, we are thankful for all we’ve learned and the support we’ve been able to provide our communities. We are immensely grateful for our partners, who are committed to helping us provide high-quality connections that create positive and future-oriented mindsets in our students.

Truly, we are only able to do this work as a result of these partnerships with educators and companies like Chick-fil-A, who continually motivate us to do more. We look forward to what’s to come as we continue to expand our reach and impact our communities in meaningful ways together.