Michele Merkel, Executive Director of Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley, visited Boardman Rotary today.
Pillars of Success: entrepreneurship, financial literacy, work readiness
Program Reach: JA served 13,671 K-12 students in 631 classrooms during the ‘17-‘18 school year. Volunteers from the community are placed in the classrooms to assist with programming.
Counties Served: Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Ashtabula
JA USA is 100 years old this year. Trumbull County was founded in 1952 and Youngstown in 1953 - they merged in 1992. There are 109 chapters nationwide.
Programs:
- Summer enrichment programming — students learned how to come up with a product, put a business plan together, and sell the product.
- JA High School Heroes — high school students go to elementary grades to present JA programs.
- Kit based programs to blended learning programs — includes online sessions and powerpoint presentations.
- Program delivery — traditional (volunteers go in once a week), JA in a Day, after-school, seminars at YSU and KSU, by topic (volunteers go in for one hour and speak)
- JA Titan Business Challenge — high school students from all four counties participate. Paired in 2-3 students, and compete against each other for scholarships. Over $38,000 in scholarships awarded.
- Financial Starting Point Seminar — over 600 local HS students attend one day seminar on budgeting, credit & investment
See more programs on the Junior Achievement website.