JA Insight January 2009 Newswire

With the inauguration of a new president, Junior Achievement launches the new "Our Nation" program.

Read on in Opportunities for Education for more details!

Thank you for all you do to help change the lives of young people across Middle Tennessee!

Inside the President's Corner
with
Trent Klingensmith

Dear JA Supporters:

Now that a new year has begun, it is important to take a moment to reflect on the past. We must know where we came from in order to map our course for the future. I recently took a look at the charter of Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee. The founders of this organization had great plans for our future, and their vision is inspirational.

Fifty-one years ago, six men formed an organization determined to encourage, promote, supervise, and develop an educational program designed to give young people experience in solving common problems found in business, industry, and human relations. These men also wanted their program to instill a degree of responsibility in the students they hoped to reach.

Today, this original vision has grown into 25 classroom programs in addition to JA Job Shadow Days and JA BizTown. JA of Middle Tennessee operates in 18 counties, reaching more than 45,000 students annually. In a time of financial uncertainty and fluctuating markets, the message JA brings to today's young people is more important than ever. While our founders relied on a program to educate their youth; today we rely on the dedicated teachers, volunteers, and financial supporters that provide JA programming to Middle Tennessee's students. Not only do you have the opportunity to support JA through your time and efforts, but you can also promote JA in your homes, to your friends, and to other organizations to which you belong.

At the end of the month, JA of Middle Tennessee will be paying tribute to National Junior Achievement Week. This week will promote the mission and vision of JA by recognizing our dedicated volunteers, teachers, and supporters, as well as some of the students who have received JA in their classrooms. The week will culminate with 2009 Job Shadow Day, providing nearly 500 students the chance to experience a business first-hand.

We thank you for your dedication to this great organization and hope you will join us in celebrating the 54-year-old tradition of National Junior Achievement Week.

Thank you,

Trent Klingensmith

Opportunities for Appreciation

Wright Travel to provide JA programs for area high schoolers

Pam Wright

High schools throughout Middle Tennessee will soon benefit from Junior Achievement programming, thanks to a generous contribution from Wright Travel, made on behalf of Ms. Pamela J. Wright, a JA board member and recipient of the 2001 Junior Achievement Leadership Award.

"I feel very strongly that Junior Achievement addresses a critical void in today's education system - helping our young people understand and appreciate the connection between what they learn in school and what is required in the business world," she said.

"This is why I've served on the board of Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee for many years and why Wright Travel is now making this donation to help get Junior Achievement educational materials and volunteers into our local high schools."

She had this to say about the importance of JA programming: "If today's economic crisis teaches us anything, it is that we must teach our children about the economics of life, and Junior Achievement does a magnificent job of this."

Ms. Wright opened her first office in Nashville in 1981 with a simple but ambitious mission - to ensure that clients receive unsurpassed value from their travel dollars and to provide service that surpasses their expectations. Adhering to this philosophy over the years has enabled Wright Travel to become the largest travel agency based in Tennessee and one of the largest in the U.S. Today, Wright Travel provides its corporate and leisure travel clients the best of both words - the personalized service of a smaller agency combined with the negotiating power of a mega-agency heavyweight.

Ms. Wright is active in a number of professional, civic and charitable organizations. In addition to serving JA, currently serves on the Board of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce Partnership 2010 Lead Investor Council. Ms. Wright has served on the Board of Trustees for Middle Tennessee State University Foundation and the MTSU President's Advisory Council.

Many thanks go out to Ms. Wright and Wright Travel for the donation to JA's high school programs.

National
Junior Achievement
Week
February 2-6, 2009

Join JA of Middle Tennessee as we recognize a tradition of excellence in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, & workforce readiness programming. JA will celebrate the dedicated volunteers, teachers, and supporters, as well as some of the students benefiting from our programs each day during the week.

History of National Junior Achievement Week

In the early 1950s, all Junior Achievement offices in the United States came together to create awareness and raise funds for the organization. In 1955, President Eisenhower declared National Junior Achievement Week, bringing nation-wide focus to the efforts of JA and the impact Junior Achievement programs were having on business education for young people across the country. Collaborated efforts between groups like the Advertising Council, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the Outdoor Advertising Association helped publicize JA. Several celebrities even chose to get involved. One of the first celebrities to endorse Junior Achievement was Bing Crosby, who filmed a JA commercial with his son, Gary.

About the same time that Eisenhower made this declartion, a group of businessmen in Nashville were curious about this thing called Junior Achievement and began to do research. Mr. Sam Fleming sent a man named Jimmy Wells to Memphis to learn all he could about Junior Achievement and report back. That research served as the impetus that Mr. Fleming, along with Mr. Hugh Stallworth, Mr. William McLain, Mr. Albert Werthan, Mr. J.V. Blevins, Mr. John Farris, and Mr. G.H. Dorland, needed to found Junior Achievement of Nashville, Inc.

The Charter of Incorporation (signed on August 30, 1957) states the purpose of the organization was for the "encouraging, promoting, supervising, and developing, on a nonprofit basis, an educational program designed to give youth...actual experience in the solving of problems of industry and business, to provide boys and girls...with an opportunity to learn a craft, the art of buying and selling, and the procedures of accouting, as well as the human relations problems facedunctioning of American business and government during their years of participation."

To have your JA story profiled during National Junior Achievement Week, please email Jessica Bowers.

Opportunities for Education

"Our Nation" gets new look, new info

PoplarGroveStudents

JA's fifth-grade classroom-based program, Our Nation, has recently received updates.This program provides practical information about businesses' need for individuals who can meet the demands of the job market, including high-growth, high-demand jobs.

Students will learn that businesses need workers with skills that are in demand, such as STEM skills - science, technology, engineering and math. They'll understand that people who have these skills benefit from a growing number of career opportunities.

Our Nation introduces the concept of globalization of business as it relates to the various careers students may choose to pursue, and the need for students to be entrepreneurial in their thinking. Students who get Our Nation today will be better equipped for tomorrow to meet the requirements of businesses worldwide.

To learn more about the program, watch this video or click for more details. To volunteer in the classroom or to sign up for this program, please contact the JA Programs Team via email or at 615.627.1195.

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Have you recently volunteered in a JA classroom? Are you planning to volunteer this spring? If so, you can turn your volunteer hours into a free cup of coffee!
Click here for details.

DEADLINE: Feb. 2, 2009

2009 Comdata Scholarship Program

Comdata� Corporation and Junior Achievement� of Middle Tennessee

Comdata� Corporation and Junior Achievement� of Middle Tennessee are pleased to announce the inaugural Comdata Scholarship Program for 2009.

The scholarship will be awarded to up to ten graduating high school seniors in the Middle Tennessee area.

For more information and scholarship application, click here.

Attention Employers:

Ever wondered how you could influence our future work force?
Do you know kids who are unrealistic about the world of work?
Are you concerned that your career may become a dying breed?

Then Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee has the answer for you!

Sign up to host students for the JA Job Shadow program. Our goal is to match 700 deserving young people all across the region with companies and organizations wishing to make a difference.

Please contact Charlisa Pugh via email or at 615.627.1197 for more information.

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Junior Achievement is the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to educating students about business, economics and personal finance.