By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
If you associate Junior Achievement with the after-school, product-building program from the 1950s-'70s, you might not recognize it today inside classrooms, where volunteers expose students as young as second grade to taxes.
Participants created actual companies, developed marketing plans, elected boards of directors and sold those products they built with power tools.
"Junior Achievement is a little bit more than that now," St. Joseph-based Michiana President Kelli J. Matti for Berrien and Cass counties in Michigan and St. Joseph, Marshall and LaPorte counties in Indiana told Dowagiac Rotary Club Thursday noon at Elks Lodge 889. "That company program does still exist, but we have really evolved and moved into the classroom. That change has really come from the students. Kids now are busy people with a lot going on. We weren't serving the number of students we wanted to serve in the after-school market. Studies told us it was at the middle school level when students determined whether or not they were going to stay in school. We were serving them at the high school level."
JA began serving elementary schools with its "hands-on activities" in this area in 1995.
"We have a rich history locally," Matti said. "We began in Niles and Buchanan and merged with St. Joseph and Benton Harbor." Cass County joined in 1999.
JA offers 25 classroom programs, including: Ourselves, Our Families, Our Community, Our City, Our Region and Our Nation at the elementary level (K-5); JA Global Marketplace, JA Economics for Success, JA America Works, Our World, Personal Economics, JA Enterprise in Action, The International Marketplace, The Economics of Staying in School and JA Go Figure! Exploring Math in Business for middle grades (6-8); and JA Economics, JA Personal Finance, JA Success Skills and JA Titan (an interactive, Web-based simulation) for high school and also JA Afterschool Dollars and $ense, JA It's My Business! JA Company Program, JA Enterprise Village, JA Finance Park and JA Job Shadow.
"We want students to understand that what they're learning in school they are going to deal with later on and it's important," Program Director Sue Young said. "A lot of our volunteers are parents, but not all. Since Enron, we teach ethics, too."
"The schools provide the forum for our programs," Matti said. "Classroom time is a big contribution on their part and we appreciate it. Our programs are proven. It takes three to five years to develop each one, from being created, tested and piloted in different regions. The State of Michigan did its own independent evaluation of our programs. When elementary students experienced JA economic programming, they have a better understanding of the world around them. If they experience them sequentially, in more than one grade, they're better critical thinkers and can make better business decisions and better decisions overall. Last year, teachers gave us 4.54 on a 5.0 scale for effective programs; 4.6 on a 5.0 scale for student enthusiasm; and 98 percent wanted it back again."
JA served 8,096 students in 349 classes in 2005-06 and 8,109 in 342 classes in 2004-05 in the five-county region.
In Dowagiac, JA is in its third year at Patrick Hamilton with fifth graders. Fourth graders are the target audience at Kincheloe.
For volunteers it takes a one-hour commitment each week for five weeks.
"I just finished up, and I would strongly recommend it," said Rotarian Dave Cook of Suntree Hardwoods, whose wife, Julie, teaches at Justus Gage Elementary School. "The kids really get excited and the teacher's guide is excellent to follow. Teaching (his fifth graders) sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations was fun. They were catching on because they'd say, 'I like the sole proprietorship because I get to keep all the profits, but I want the partnership to have someone to help me pay the bills.' I definitely want to come back next year."
To volunteer, call Young at (269) 983-7579 or e-mail info@michianaja.org.
JA also reaches students in Cassopolis and Edwardsburg.
Young joined JA in 2000. She recruits classroom volunteers. Her background was in retail management. She also worked as an adjunct college professor.
Matti started her career with non-profit organizations in Grand Rapids with the Arthritis Foundation and senior service agencies.
"I interned with a non-profit organization in college and felt like I was doing something important," Matti said.
Many people may not realize that JA, founded in 1919, is a worldwide organization operating in 113 countries and in 139 U.S. regions to serve 7.5 million students.
"Within the next few years," Matti said, "international will exceed the United States in the number of students being served. Demand for free enterprise and economic education abroad is much higher than it is here in the United States."
"Having volunteers present the program is a big career awareness plus," Young said. "Volunteers bring all the things that have happened in their lives and all the different jobs that are in their industry or business."