Junior Achievement

I have the amazing opportunity to volunteer for Junior Achievement. If you have never heard of them please check out their website. They do some really amazing things with kids and I am so pleased to finally be part of their organization. I will be going into a second grade class and teaching them about business and careers and how that relates to their community. It’s only about an hour a week of your time for 6 weeks. The important part is that it gets the kids thinking about their career and how they can impact their community in a positive way. They give you all the materials and lesson plan along with the activities, you just go into the class room and present the material.

I first heard of them about three years ago when I was working at a bank. I tried half-heartedly to join up at that point but no one ever emailed me back and I didn’t follow up. But I was working full time and pregnant with my son, I really didn’t have any extra energy. So now that I’m a stay at home mom and my son is older I feel like it’s the right time for me to start.

Yesterday I attended their two-hour training program. I am so impressed with their program. They have a whole “main-street” set up inside the building. They have a 12 week program for high-school seniors where at the end of the program the kids come to main street for one day and interview for a job. They then get hired for a job based on how well they learned the material during the past 12 weeks and how well they interviewed. How cool! They get a salary and have to buy things for themselves and their business. Things like lunch from the café on main street and insurance and a small business license from other businesses “around town”. It’s so cool. I wish my school had participated in something like this when I was a kid.

Anyways, if you are looking for an opportunity to volunteer please check them out.