What is Junior Achievement (JA)?

The mission of the program is to teach children the value of economics and free enterprise. Empower them with real world learning and inspire them to find their own success. JA seeks to educate and inspire young people to succeed in a global economy.

JA programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action, and learn the value of contributing to their communities. Junior Achievement uses hands-on experiences to help young people understand the economics of life.

Where is JA located?

Junior Achievement was founded by Horace Moses in 1919 in Springfield, MA. Today the JA Worldwide Headquarters provides support for JA operations throughout the U.S., and in nearly 100 countries around the world. JA Worldwide annually reaches approximately 7.5 million students worldwide. The closest JA office to our school is located in Greenville.

Which JA programs do we offer at FOA for the school year 2007-2008?

Ourselves: uses compelling stories read aloud to K5 students, along with hands-on activities to demonstrate helping, working, earning, and saving.

Our families: is for first graders and emphasizes the role people play in the local economy and engages students with activities about needs, wants, jobs, tools and skills, and interdependence

Our community: explores with second and third graders the interdependent roles of workers in a community, the work they perform, and how communities work.

Our city: second and third graders study careers, the skills people need to work in specific careers, and how businesses contribute to a city.

Our nation: examines how businesses operate in the United States. Our upper elementary students role-play business ownership, interview for jobs, and learn different methods of production while exploring various economic issues that affect business.

Global marketplace: provides practical information about global economy and its effect on upper elementary students’ lives.

The first graders are separated from the second and third graders in order to provide them with a program that takes into account their reading, writing and comprehension level.

Each theme is presented over 5 weeks, 45 min to an hour per week. There is one exception. The Global Marketplace program covers six weeks.

What is the financial implication of the program for our school?

We got a very good deal from JA Greenville. The normal price per student is about $20 for large public schools. We got it for only $8 per student. The reason is that JA does not need to provide as many materials for our students as in larger schools because we have fewer students per classroom and fewer classrooms per grade level. The program works with volunteers to teach the themes. We provide our own volunteers which saves JA some money but not a lot because our volunteers are also trained by JA.

How do we sponsor this program?

The PTO, along with FOA, decided that one of the main sponsorship programs for this school year will be the JA program. If anyone would like to make a tax deductible donation, please write your check to Five Oaks Academy PTO.

Who do we thank for sponsorship?

The Jindal family

The McKinney family

The Pinochet family

Bunty, LLC

South Carolina Bank and Trust who offers $10 for every checking account opened and $5 for every minor savings account opened by someone from our school.

Lori Burney with the entertainment book sale

The Jump!Zone play center

Our PTO

Why do we provide our own volunteers?

We need volunteers who are familiar with the Montessori way of thinking. The best way to do this is to ask our parents to volunteer. Through the workshops at our school, through the experience of our children handed over to our parents, through reading about Montessori education and through observation in the classroom it is possible to get a better understanding and respect for the way our children learn at our school. It would be far more difficult to explain this over and over again to outside volunteers. This way we try to obtain the best match between JA and Montessori education.  

Who are our volunteers for the 2007-2008 school year?

Missy McClain: has an MBA and knows the children well. She teaches this Fall K5 the Ourselves package and the Our Families material in First Grade.  When she was in Middle School, Missy was a student of  a Junior Achievement program.

Richelle Otovic: has a lot of experience in teaching JA material and has a son Matthew in Upper Elementary. She focuses this Fall on the Second and Third grade Our Community material. 

Kathy Cassidy: has an MBA and a son Neil in Lower Elementary and two sons Kevin and Shane in Upper Elementary. She will teach Our City in the spring to Second and Third graders.

Holly Gamble: is a small business owner and her son Johnathan is in primary. She teaches Our Nation this Fall in Upper Elementary.

Ria Aerts: has a Ph.D. in Business Economics and a daughter Yanina in K4 and a son Enrique in Third grade. She will teach next spring Global Marketplace in Upper Elementary. 

More information on JA?

For more information about JA at our school, please contact Ria Aerts at ria_aerts@charter.net. General information can be found at www.ja.org.