Junior Achievement Company Program Prepares Tomorrow’s Business Leaders

Submitted by: Melissa Shapiro, Development Manager, Junior Achievement of Delaware Valley

Junior Achievement is the world’s largest financial literacy non-profit, bringing economic education to children from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Locally, Junior Achievement of Delaware Valley (http://philadelphia.ja.org) serves 18,000 annually in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. Launching in the fall each academic year, JADV’s signature after-school program, the JA Company Program, prepares high school students to be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

The Junior Achievement (JA) Company Program is an exciting opportunity for students to create and run their own business, while being mentored by business professionals. High school students from across the region hold weekly meetings at various host sites to experience what it takes to own a small business.

Students work with their “co-workers” and corporate volunteers to create and run an actual business, undergoing every step from product creation to liquidation. Students raise capital, manufacture, advertise, sell their product, and return investments to stockholders after liquidation. Leaders are elected, and the company is organized into relevant departments with specific responsibilities. The volunteers offer guidance along the way, but the company is truly run by the students themselves.

The program lasts for 15 weeks, with students meeting once a week at one of eight host sites: Aqua America, Bimbo Bakeries USA, IKEA, KPMG, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, SAP, Inc. and The Vanguard Group. Nearly 200 students are participating this year and each site is underway, with some student companies already beginning to execute their business plan.

The program culminates in a Regional Competition at the end of March, where the student companies compete in various categories to showcase their organization’s accomplishments. Scholarships are awarded to the winners of the individual categories. Last year’s winner of “Overall Best Company”, USB Me, was selected to travel to Washington, DC to participate in the National Student Leadership Summit.

Past members of the JA Company Program often attribute some of their professional and personal success to what they learned from Junior Achievement. One student explained, “Junior Achievement encouraged me and a friend to create a business ourselves, and take a shot at American capitalism… If I never took part in Junior Achievement, I strongly believe that we could have never started up this company.”

Junior Achievement needs your help to meet the demand for our programs.  Our turnkey JA Company volunteer experience can support leadership development and employee morale for your employees.  Would you like to change the course of a young person’s life?

Please contact Paul Kappel, Jr., President at 610-230-3380 or paul.kappel@ja.org for more information of how we can work together to build a better future for our community’s young people.