Junior Achievement and Georgia Southern University Developing Historic Partnership in Savannah

Fifth JA Discovery Center Planned for Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong campus

Savannah, GA – Junior Achievement of Georgia (JA) is collaborating with Georgia Southern University to plan the construction and launch of a JA Discovery Center on the Armstrong campus in Savannah.

“We are so excited to be deepening our impact in the Savannah area and are looking forward to growing our relationship with Georgia Southern University,” said Camille Russo, Vice President, Marketing, JA of Georgia. “We are grateful to the local Savannah community for decades of support and are thrilled with the possibility of bringing this innovative and engaging experience to the students of the region.”  

Retrofitting construction of the Student Recreation Center is anticipated to begin as soon as Fall 2020.  Space can be made available for the JA Discovery Center in Savannah to serve 15,000 middle school students annually in the coastal region of the state.

Outfitting the space to become a Discovery Center will require financial support of approximately $4 million, funded from an up-and-coming campaign. The project will also require approval by the University System of Georgia and the Board of Regents. 

The facility will provide students continued exposure to their future possibilities through two innovative programs:

JA BizTown creates an unmatched experience where 6th grade students can interact within a simulated economy and take on the challenge of fueling a business. Here, students not only discover the intricacies of being a professional and member of the community, but also realize the abundance of opportunities available within their city.

JA Finance Park provides 7th grade students the rare opportunity to experience their personal financial futures first-hand. Guided by an assigned ‘life situation,’ students participate in an immersive simulation that enables them to develop skills to successfully navigate today’s complex economic environment and discover how decisions today can impact tomorrow.

“We are excited about the potential collaboration with Junior Achievement and the concept of a Discovery Center on Georgia Southern's Armstrong Campus in Savannah,” said Georgia Southern President Kyle Marrero. “This project aligns with our mission, values, and strategic plan. It will also provide experiential and employment opportunities for our Armstrong students and help make the Armstrong Campus a destination for the region.  This is exactly the type of impactful relationship that evidences the value added of a collaborative approach to educational attainment and talent development."

Currently JA Discovery Centers serve more than 88,000 students a year across three locations - the JA Chick-fil-A Foundation Discovery Center in Altanta, the JA Discovery Center at Gwinnett and the Mike and Lynn Cottrell JA Discovery Center at North Georgia in Cumming. The fourth facility, in Dalton, is under construction and will open in 2021, bringing the total impact to more than a third of middle school students in Georgia.

To find out more about getting involved, please contact Robert Grant at 912-856-1700 or rgrant@georgia.ja.org.

About Georgia Southern University

Georgia Southern University, a public Carnegie Doctoral/R2 institution founded in 1906, offers 141 degree programs serving more than 26,000 students through nine colleges on three campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, Hinesville and online instruction. A leader in higher education in southeast Georgia, the University provides a diverse student population with expert faculty, world-class scholarship and hands-on learning opportunities. Georgia Southern creates lifelong learners who serve as responsible scholars, leaders and stewards in their communities. Visit GeorgiaSouthern.edu.

Twenty years as a JA volunteer and the inspiration and joy are still evolving

This post appeared on Penske’s blog as a part of their “50 Stories of People Helping People” series.

Penske Logistics Recruiter Celebrates 20 Years as Junior Achievement Volunteer

Not many 15-year-olds can say their first job was on Wall Street processing multimillion-dollar checks in the center of the world’s financial district.

Yet for Penske Logistics Recruiter Karen Francis, who always thought she would have a career in radio, that experience set her on a path to a successful career in finance.

Francis credits mentors – like her teachers and high school counselor – who helped her to recognize her talents and explore new possibilities. For the past 20 years, she has been able to do the same for a new generation of students as a Junior Achievement volunteer.

“All of those influences had a positive effect in my life. It opened me up to the understanding that I had options,” said Francis, who is based in Atlanta and donates her time to the Junior Achievement of Georgia. “If a young person is never exposed to multiple possibilities in life, they could get kind of lost.”

As the nation paused this week – National Volunteer Week – to honor the dedication of millions of people helping people, organizations like Junior Achievement say volunteers like Francis play a crucial role in helping to fulfill their mission.

“For us as an organization, volunteers are crucial,” said Maria Uribe, associate, volunteer recruiter and coordinator for Junior Achievement of Georgia. “We are very lucky to have Karen as part of the JA family.”

Empowering the Next Generation of Students

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Junior Achievement (JA), which began in response to societal changes.

As families moved from farms to industrial cities, JA’s focus was to provide young people with the skills they would need to become successful adults in their new surroundings.

JA has evolved from operating mostly in the Northeast teaching teens how to start a business. The organization reaches more than 10 million students in 100 countries promoting entrepreneurship, career and work readiness and financial literacy, according to Junior Achievement USA.

“As JA continues to grow and evolve, one of our pillars is staying true to the times. JA has been around for 100 years, and one of the ways we have been able to do that is to keep up with the evolution of business and technology,” Uribe said.

This allows JA to help meet its goal of preparing students to succeed in the global economy.

Part of that evolution has been JA taking learning beyond the classroom to infuse authenticity and relevance into the academic experience.

A centerpiece to the JA programming in Georgia centers on three Junior Achievement Discovery Centers that house JA BizTown and JA Finance Park, hands-on business simulations geared toward middle school students.

“Upon completion of the curriculum, the students and educators get to come to a JA Discovery Center, a simulation space which is modeled after the real world they see every day,” Uribe said. “All of that traditional learning that happens in the classroom with worksheets, lectures, and homework is transformed into experiential hands-on learning in a one-day simulation experience.”

This is where the role of volunteers like Francis take center stage.

“Our volunteers work with a small group of students to really support them and bring the relevancy of the real world to really dive deep into those conversations that surround financial management, teamwork, communication, collaboration – all of those soft skills,” Uribe said.

JA BizTown allows students to gain experience in real-world learning as they move through the life cycle of business operation from launching a business in the morning to closing the business at the end of the day.

Volunteers like Francis are on hand to provide assistance to the students. “We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without volunteers like Karen,” Uribe said.

Mentoring Future Business Leaders

Francis was able to work with students earlier this week during a JA BizTown simulation. It was her first time mentoring students as they received their first taste of what it was like to run a business.

“To see these middle school students start a business and run it was thrilling,” Francis said. “Students discovered very early on that teamwork was the only way that the businesses could succeed.”

The students also learned how to manage their own personal finances.

“Each student was paid a salary and were allowed to go shopping to understand how to manage their money. The directive was to save, spend and give,” Francis said. “Some did an excellent job, while others went to the bank to ask for a personal loan because they didn’t understand the concept of saving.”

Francis applauded the JA BizTown experience because it contributes to the students’ work readiness, while also allowing them to maneuver in the larger global economy.

“Exposing them to entrepreneurship – being able to kind of chart your own career – makes a big difference and has a huge influence on them,” Francis said.

For Francis, her reward is found in the joy of students participating in events like JA BizTown and hearing about the good fortune of students she mentored in years past.

“I am all over social media because of what I do. When you see someone you mentored or had some part to play and they are graduating from college or telling you how they are doing, there is no better thing for me,” Francis said.

“Just seeing someone actually try to do what they love to do or something they never thought about doing, it is kind of an unspeakable thing,” she said. “It’s joy, just pure joy.”

By Berine Mixon

Six local school systems partner to bring relevant, authentic and experiential learning to middle school students

Mike and Lynn Cottrell JA Discovery Center at North Georgia to Impact 15,000 Local Students

Atlanta, GA – The Mike and Lynn Cottrell JA Discovery Center at North Georgia is well underway and will begin serving students in Fall 2018.

It will be the third JA Discovery Center in Georgia, and will serve middle school students in the northern region of the state. The facility will be located on the new high school campus of the Alliance Academy for Innovation of Cumming – Forsyth, also opening in Fall 2018. The inclusion of the facility on this innovative campus will provide students continued exposure to their future possibilities.

“We are thrilled to be able to expand the impact of this relevant, authentic and experiential learning to more students across the state,” said Jack Harris, President and CEO, Junior Achievement of Georgia. “This facility creates an opportunity for us to enhance existing partnerships, and ignite new ones in a community that is engaged in deepening their students’ education experience,” said Harris.

The first hybrid facility in the state will combine both JA BizTown and JA Finance Park, experiential simulations that have impacted more than 160,000 middle school students in the last three years.

“Our students will have a chance to explore career opportunities that perhaps they have never considered before, and to learn entrepreneurial skills that will be very beneficial as they consider their career pathways and post-secondary areas of interest,” said Dr. Jeff Bearden, Superintendent, Forsyth County Schools. “In my 30 years in public education, I have never experienced a program and a curriculum that addresses financial literacy better than the JA Discovery Center concept.  We are so fortunate to afford our students this opportunity,” said Bearden.

Middle school students from Calhoun City Schools, Dawson County Schools, Forsyth County Schools, Gainesville City Schools, Hall County Schools and Lumpkin County Schools will all participate in in-class curriculum in preparation for their immersive experiences in JA BizTown and JA Finance Park.

JA BizTown creates an unmatched experience where students are able to interact within a simulated economy and take on the challenge of fueling a business. Here, students not only discover the intricacies of being a professional and member of the community, but also realize the abundance of opportunities available within their city.

JA Finance Park provides students the rare opportunity to experience their personal financial futures first-hand. Students participate in an immersive simulation that enables them to develop skills to successfully navigate today’s complex economic environment and discover how decisions today can impact tomorrow.

Will Schofield, Superintendent, Hall County Schools, shared similar excitement for the impact this facility will have on his students, and expressed how “fortunate the district is to have an opportunity like this for our middle school students.” 

The launch of this engaging facility would not be possible without the support of Mike and Lynn Cottrell, as well as partnerships with participating school systems, and investment from the following partners who will have storefronts in the new facility: ADP, Andean Chevrolet, Associated Credit Union, City of Cumming, Delta Air Lines, Elavon, Engineered Floors, Georgia Power, Georgia State University, Georgia United Credit Union, MarketSource, North Georgia Community Foundation, Northside Hospital, Publix Super Markets Charities, RaceTrac, United Way of Hall County, United Way of Forsyth County and Zaxby’s.