Junior Achievement of New Jersey

About JANJ

About JANJ

Purpose
To inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.

Mission
To educate and inspire young people to value financial literacy, business, and economics. JA Worldwide’s programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking in the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and learn the value of contributing to their communities.

Vision
In accordance with JA Worldwide, JANJ will be the partner of choice for businesses, educators, and policymakers around the globe seeking to expand workforce and economic development. We will be widely respected and valued for providing experiences that promote the skills, understanding, and perspectives students will need to succeed in a global economy and to become productive contributing members of society.

Educating Today’s Students To Be Tomorrow’s Leaders…

Introduction
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and free enterprise. Through a dedicated volunteer network, JA offers in-school and after-school programs for students in grades K-12. JA programs focus on seven key content areas: business, citizenship, economics, entrepreneurship, ethics/character, financial literacy, and career development. Today JA Worldwide® reaches over 9.7 million students worldwide in over 120 countries. For more information, visit www.ja.org This past school-year, JA educated nearly 32,000 students in the state of New Jersey. This year, JA will educate more than 33,000 students in the State of New Jersey.

Programs
Programs span grades K-12, with age-appropriate curricula designed to teach elementary students about their roles as individuals, workers, and consumers and to prepare middle grade and high school students for key economic and workforce issues they will face.

JA Student Impact and Program Evaluation
Over the past ten years, numerous evaluation studies, conducted by professional external evaluators, have confirmed that JA programs are successful in raising student aspirations, teaching entrepreneurial skills, providing a positive business role model and teaching students to recognize and create opportunities to achieve their goals. These studies provide credible evidence for the positive impact of JA programs.

Purpose & Description
JA is passionate people inspiring kids to learn the economics of life. These passionate caring people include teachers, investors, and volunteer role models, who are helping to provide a clearer vision for the next generation about their role and opportunities in the workplace.

Our purpose is to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business, and economics to improve the quality of their lives. Each Junior Achievement program offers award winning materials and trained volunteers from the local business community who provide real-life experiences and inspiration. The JA experience emphasizes:

Exposure to positive corporate and community role models
Work readiness
Life skills of self-reliance, confidence, and sense of accountability
Character modeling emphasizing respect, responsibility and integrity

The Need
Young people are leaving school unprepared to join the workforce. Many schools have a difficult time addressing the issue of workforce preparedness. The gravity of this problem is well documented by the Gallup Organization and others – and the implications for the U.S. economy in the 21st century are profound.

The Junior Achievement Curriculum and our Volunteers
Junior Achievement uses early intervention to begin building a foundation for self-respect, the most important element for success. Toward these goals, we have developed a sequential learning curriculum carefully tailored to students’ abilities and needs at every grade level. At a cost of $20 per student, our program is extremely cost effective. The curriculum motivates students, which, in turn, enhances their ability to learn and broadens their expectations for the future.

While our curriculum is formal and written, our volunteer mentors do not "lecture" in the classroom. Rather, we encourage them to share their life experiences with the youngsters. We know that the fun part of learning is to take a principle – an idea- and to live it, to basically go from being in school to being in real life. When our volunteer consultants put the fun back into learning, it makes a student thirst for education. We, as an organization, are able to put that fun back into the learning process.

Organization Overview

Junior Achievement Worldwide is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The JA Headquarters provides strategic direction, leadership and support to approximately 1,350 employees in nearly 150 local operations in all 50 states. Local volunteer boards of directors comprised of business, education, and civic leaders set policy and direction for each local office. JANJ is governed by a state board, which includes statewide executives as well as representatives from three regional district boards; north, central and south Jersey.

Value Partnering for Businesses

	Enhances employee development
	Provides community-based school partnerships
	Creates community visibility
	Matches dollars to volunteer efforts
	Exhibits investment in future workforce
	Upholds corporate citizenship and ethical standards

Businesses, foundations, and individuals understand the tremendous need for a well-educated workforce. Junior Achievement of New Jersey offers a variety of opportunities to help make a difference:

Fundraising Activities

	Program/School Sponsorship
	Whole School Partnership
	Golf Outings
	Bowl-a-Thons
	Annual Hall of Fame Event
	JA Worldwide "Free Enterprise Society"

Program Participation

	Traditional Classes
	JA Day
	JA in 2 Days
	High School and College Student Heroes
	After-School Partnerships
	PTA/PTO Partnerships
	Job Shadow

Refund Policy

Junior Achievement of New Jersey will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to Junior Achievement of New Jersey.