The JA Story

Empowering the next great business minds

“JA has helped me begin to shape my future and to find a true passion.”      —Peter, JA high school student

Junior Achievement (JA) is the world’s largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides in-school and after-school programs for students which focus on three key content areas: entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness. The goal is to teach concepts through experiential learning, allowing young people to put their new knowledge and skills into practice. For example, students in an elementary school might learn about unit versus assembly line production by producing donuts. Or, high school students might participate in our popular JA Stock Market Challenge, a stock market simulation game in which teams compete to build their stock portfolios.

Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain, Inc.

• Builds young people’s capacity to spur economic development and contribute to America’s global competitiveness.
• Inspires students to stay in school by demonstrating relevant benefits to education and work readiness.
• Partners with local businesses to provide rewarding employee volunteer programs.
• Trains 5,000 volunteers to teach students through relevant, responsive, innovative programs in approximately 500 participating schools.
• Reached 105,355 students throughout Metro Denver, Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming during the 2011/2012 school year.
• Implements fun, educational competitions like JA Stock Market Challenge and JA Business Week.
• Celebrated 62 years of service to Colorado in 2012.

Junior Achievement’s Mission

To prepare young people to thrive in the 21st century workplace and global economy by inspiring a passion in free enterprise and entrepreneurship, and instilling an understanding of personal financial literacy.

Junior Achievement’s Vision

We will strengthen our state’s competitiveness by graduating JA alumni from high school at a significantly greater rate than their peers by bringing together the region’s largest and best trained force of passionate volunteers to teach and inspire generations of young people to be financially literate, self-sufficient, and have a shared culture of optimism, zeal and enterprise.

Junior Achievement’s Core Values

• Belief in the boundless potential of young people; the JA experience will be extended to all young people and schools regardless of their ability to pay
• Commitment to the principles of capitalism
• Passion for what we do and promotion of a culture of integrity, ethics and trust
• Respect for the talents, creativity, perspectives and backgrounds of all individuals
• Fostering a collaborative community of businesses, schools, volunteers and other service organizations
• We emulate entrepreneurial values in our business and encourage innovation, competition and risk

Our Educational Pillars

• Entrepreneurship — JA students recognize opportunities and organize resources to maximize innovative thought and creative activity.
• Financial Literacy — Our students have the personal financial knowledge necessary to effectively meet personal fiscal challenges and obligations, take advantage of economic opportunities, and plan courses of action to achieve goals.
• Workforce Readiness — JA students possess the knowledge, attitudes and skills required to demonstrate their readiness to successfully engage in meaningful and productive work.

You can download JA’s 2012 Annual Report here.

Want to know more? Watch the JA Story.