Mission

JA's mission is to inspire and prepare young people to embrace free enterprise and succeed in a global economy.

Purpose

JA's purpose is to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives. JA uses hands-on experiences to help students understand the "economics of life." Focusing on workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy, JA brings the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential.

 Approach

Our approach is simple yet highly effective. JA facilitates a powerful partnership between business and education: JA develops the innovative K-12 programs; schools provide the access; the business community provides the financial support and volunteers to deliver the hands-on curriculum to students. Our key stakeholders include:

• Teachers, who open their doors to this unique dimension of learning;
• Volunteers, who are the heart of Junior Achievement's learn-by-doing approach; and
• Investors, whose generous support turns classrooms into incubators for our future workers, leaders and entrepreneurs.

Reach

Using our unique approach, JA is on track to reach more than 90,000 kids in over 500 schools throughout metro Denver, Northern Colorado and Wyoming during the 2007/08 school year. To accomplish this, we will mobilize over 3,000 dedicated, well-trained volunteers this year, ranging from CEO's to college students to young professionals to retirees. These volunteers serve as invaluable role models by helping students to understand the important role that education plays in their future success.

Curriculum

JA's classroom programs integrate dynamic program materials, step-by-step lesson plans, comprehensive training and support – all provided to schools at no cost. In order carry on the tradition of offering our programs free of charge to the thousands of teachers who request them each year, we rely primarily on the business community for funding and volunteer support.

JA is the 4th “R” in school subjects; we provide relevance to what students learn in school by linking an education to future opportunity. The JA curriculum comes alive when volunteers lead students through innovative lesson plans.

Junior Achievement students:

• Discover the important connection between school and work in an relevant and engaging way
Develop an optimistic view of the world of work from dedicated and well-trained volunteers 
Demonstrate an increased desire to stay in school, a sense of personal economic development, and a positive attitude towards entering the workforce