MID-HUDSON VALLEY CHAPTER
SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

 Junior Achievement

One of the ways in which you can help prepare our community’s young people to discover career options and develop the skills needed to be successful in the pursuit of career goals is to become a Junior Achievement Classroom Volunteer.  The volunteer commitment in the classroom is 45 minutes a week for five weeks or may be presented in a “JA in a Day”.

The purpose of Junior Achievement is to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business, and economics to improve the quality of their lives.

Founded in 1919, Junior Achievement is the oldest and largest economic education organization in the world, each year reaching over 4 million students in the United States and another 2 million students in over 100 countries. 

Junior Achievement of the Hudson Valley’s goal is to each year extend the student outreach to

impact the lives of a greater number  of children in a positive way in the counties of Westchester,

Rockland, Orange & Putnam in New York State through the volunteer efforts of educators,

parents, community partners and business people.                      

Elementary School Programs

Junior Achievement’s Elementary School Programs are the foundation of its k-12 curricula.  Seven sequential themes, each with five hands-on activities, as well as two capstone experiences, work to change kids' lives by helping them understand business and economics. 

The programs teach students basic economic concepts, to value education and the importance of staying in school.  They emphasize personal and group communication and decision-making skills; strengthen self-esteem; and stimulate imagination and creativity; all known factors for keeping students in school. JA Programs begin in kindergarten with Ourselves®, and in an ever-widening scope, proceed to sixth grade level with Our World®:

• Ourselves® explains personal economics through a collection of short stories read aloud by the volunteer
•  Our Families® emphasizes the roles people play in the local economy as well as how they work together to make the place they live a good place.
• Our Community® explores the interdependent roles of workers in a community and how   communities  work.
• Our City® studies careers, the skills people need to work in those careers, and how businesses contribute to a city.
• Our Region® introduces the relationship between the natural, human, and capital resources found in different regions and explores regional businesses that produce goods and services for consumers.
• Our Nation® examines how businesses operate in the United States and explores various economic issues that impact those businesses.
• Our World® focuses on imports and exports, the role of foreign exchange, and how countries are interdependent.

To become a Junior Achievement Classroom Volunteer:  

contact Workforce Readiness Chairperson, Andrea Pfleger by phone (845) 782-8337 or e-mail at pfleger1@frontiernenet.net.