History
Junior Achievement was founded in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1919 to help educate young people moving from rural America to the country's booming cities about the means of production and free enterprise. Following World War II, the organization grew from a regional into a national organization. In the 1960s, it began to grow internationally, as well.
For more than 50 years, the organization was known mostly for the JA Company Program, an after-school program where teens formed student companies, sold stocks, produced a product and sold it in their communities. The student companies were overseen by volunteer advisers from the business community. In 1975, Junior Achievement introduced its first in-school program, Project Business, featuring volunteers from the local business community teaching middle school students about business and personal finance.
Today, Junior Achievement annually reaches 4 million students with programs that teach financial literacy, entrepreneurship and workforce readiness in grades K-12. Programs are delivered by more than 178,000 Junior Achievement volunteers. Globally, JA Worldwide reaches 10.6 million students in 117 countries.
Read more about this topic: Junior Achievement
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