Atlanta teens receive career exposure through JA of Georgia in partnership with AT&T

Junior Achievement (JA) of Georgia is bringing important career readiness experiences to students in metro Atlanta as part of AT&T’s signature education initiative AT&T Aspire. Students from Cross Keys High School and Shiloh High School were assigned an AT&T mentor through the JA Job Shadow™ program, which gives students a firsthand glimpse into a professional career.

JA Job Shadow™ begins in the classroom with three sessions to help students learn more about careers, including how to identify a career based on interests, steps in researching potential jobs and developing job-hunting skills like networking and interviewing. The students then will visit an AT&T corporate office to shadow an employee for half a day to see first-hand how education translates to a satisfying and successful career.  

“Many students may not have exposure to all of the career options that exist today,” said Jack Harris, President and CEO of JA of Georgia. “Through the AT&T Aspire program, we are giving students the opportunity to be exposed to different paths and to help them realize the endless careers available in their own community.”

During the 2015-2016 school year Junior Achievement and AT&T seek to impact more than 7,000 students nationwide. This could not be achieved without the support of AT&T mentors that are a part of the company’s Aspire Mentoring Academy program. Through Aspire Mentoring Academy, AT&T employees connect with students to help them discover their passions and potential. Aspire Mentoring Academy is part of AT&T Aspire, our signature initiative to promote student success in school and beyond.

“Mentoring is a two-way street and our volunteers also learn so much from the students,” Diane Watson, AT&T Services. “The students and mentors both walk away feel inspired. They’ve talked about passions, values, encourage, education – you name it. These students are ultimately the future of our company, and other companies worldwide, and it’s important to invest in them now.”

The collaboration between JA of Georgia and AT&T is a continuation of their joint commitment to providing authentic and relevant experiences that help young people in the community be in control of their future success.

See what students and AT&T mentors who have completed JA Job Shadow™ have to say about the program: http://youtu.be/L3NWazI2_UM.   

About Philanthropy & Social Innovation at AT&T

AT&T Inc. is committed to advancing education, strengthening communities and improving lives. Through its community initiatives, AT&T has a long history of investing in projects that create learning opportunities; promote academic and economic achievement; or address community needs. In 2014, nearly $127 million was contributed or directed through corporate-, employee-, social investment- and AT&T Foundation-giving programs. AT&T Aspire is AT&T’s signature education initiative that drives innovation in education by bringing diverse resources to bear on the issue including funding, technology, employee volunteerism, and mentoring.

Publix Super Market Charities continue to support A of Georgia

Publix Super Markets Charities has given more than $31,000 in their partnership with Junior Achievement (JA) of Georgia this year, all in an effort to help empower the next generation. Publix Super Markets Charities has maintained a storefront sponsorship in JA Finance Park at the JA Chick-fil-A Foundation Discovery Center since 2013, as well as an additional storefront space in JA Finance Park presented by Assurant at the JA Discovery Center at Gwinnett, which opened in 2015. 

Their storefront offers middle school students an authentic environment where they experience their financial futures. Guided by their ‘life situation,’ students apply knowledge gained in the classroom to make routine budget decisions; ultimately, building skills to confidently navigate today’s economic environment and discovering how decisions today can impact tomorrow.

While at the Publix store, students make budgeting decisions around providing food for themselves and their families. Do they have enough room in the budget for fresh produce every week, or do they need to make compromises elsewhere to achieve a healthy diet? What is the cost difference in preparing meals at home versus eating meals out? These are just a few of the situations that volunteers help guide students through during their time in the Publix store. 

Publix Super Markets Charities’ support of JA’s learning solutions goes beyond their storefront sponsorships in the metro-Atlanta area. The grant funding supports learning solutions across multiple regions in the state, including the Southern Coastal, Northwest, Northeast and West Central Georgia areas, to help JA serve more than 172,000 students annually. 

Atlanta Public Schools and JA of Georgia expand partnership to launch JA Academy

Innovative high school model brings real world connectivity into the daily academic experience to engage students in education and empower them to own their future success

 Atlanta, GA—  Atlanta Public Schools (APS) and Junior Achievement (JA) of Georgia today announced an expansion of their partnership to include JA Academy, a model to redesign high school education to make it more relevant, experiential and authentically connected to life beyond the classroom walls.

The partnership between APS and JA began nearly a decade ago. In 2013 the two organizations extended their partnerships with the launch of the JA Chick-fil-A Foundation Discovery Center, which houses JA BizTown and JA Finance Park. Since 2013 every 6th and 7th grade student in APS has participated in these 360-degree learning experiences that combine in-class curriculum with real-world project based application. JA Academy will provide APS students the opportunity to expand upon the learning from middle school in a fully immersive model that incorporates real world connectivity and cross-curricular learning as core components of the daily high school experience.

JA Academy will enroll its first class of 150 APS students at B.E.S.T. Academy High School at Benjamin S. Carson, located near Atlanta’s Westside neighborhoods, beginning August 2017. Enrollment is open to all rising ninth and tenth grade students, who reside within the APS attendance zones, and the school will continue to grow as students matriculate to the next grade level.

JA Academy operates as a school-within-a-school with the overall goal to drive better outcomes for all students by developing a framework that can be replicated into the broader school, and eventually scaled throughout the school system. 

“We truly believe to create more pipelines to economic opportunity and to lift an entire generation, we have to work in partnership with our school systems to reimagine public education,” said Jack Harris, President and CEO of JA of Georgia.  “We are honored to partner with Dr. Carstarphen and APS, and together deliver a solution that brings innovation to education, elevates the quality of our curriculum and educators, and ultimately empowers all students with the skills, competency and motivation to thrive in today’s complex economic environment.”

JA Academy is designed to provide four years of rigorous standards-based education that integrates business connectivity directly into the education process. The framework creates an interdisciplinary learning environment that engages students through dynamic real-life case studies, which provide exposure to a myriad of industries and careers, and creates purposeful connections between academic concepts and real-world application.  The curriculum also gives students hands-on experience through work based learning, collaboration with mentors, and engagement with post-secondary institutions.

JA Academy at B.E.S.T. will be the third school and school system since 2015 to integrate this model, and JA expects to expand to two additional systems by 2019.

“The attitudinal and academic growth among our first year JA Academy students cannot be overlooked. This framework is not only revitalizing curriculum, but also heightens the level of professional development and support for the teachers, which is undoubtedly a key factor for success,” noted Harris.  “JA is proud to work with Atlanta Public Schools as we continue to build the model and be a part of APS’ efforts to continue to construct a district of high performing schools.”

“We are grateful to everyone who makes our partnership with Junior Achievement of Georgia possible,” said APS Superintendent Meria J. Carstarphen.  “The JA Academy is an example of our mission in action that focuses on collaboration to ensure that every APS student will graduate ready for college and career. A program of this caliber will expose our students to all the business world has to offer them.”

For further information on JA Academy, visit http://www.georgia.ja.org/jaacademy/.

ABOUT ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Atlanta Public Schools is one of the largest school districts in the state of Georgia, serving approximately 50,000 students across 98 learning sites. The district is organized into nine K-12 clusters with 87 schools, 17 charter schools and two citywide single-gender academies. For more information, visit www.atlantapublicschools.us