Summer 2013  

MetLife Boosts "JA Innovation Imperative"

MetLife Foundation is helping Junior Achievement reach and impact more students and improve the way it develops and delivers curricula. The concept, called the JA Innovation Imperative, will feature a "virtual incubator" to create, share, test and put ideas into action. The imperative is part of Junior Achievement USA's 2012-2015 strategic plan.

Five teams focusing on education, volunteers, resources, talent and business models are partnering with, and learning from, some of the country's most innovative companies such as Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Intuit and Disney.

JA staff met with Disney Imagineers at Disney World^�, who presented innovative approaches to brainstorming. Jack E. Kosakowski, president and CEO of Junior Achievement USA, called one meeting "the most energetic, thought-provoking and future-oriented meeting" he'd attended in his 38 years with Junior Achievement. The takeaways include:

• Engage all constituents (students, teachers, volunteers, JA staff) in the program design process.
• Seek feedback from all levels of the organization. Take more risk by building in the opportunity to fail small to ultimately succeed big.
• Evaluate and adapt success so innovation is truly valued.
• Develop new, diverse, non-traditional partnerships.

At the 2013 Junior Achievement National Leadership Conference (NLC) in Orlando, Fla., JA staff will get a behind-the-scenes look at Disney's business model, including their innovation techniques. The JA Innovation Imperative−which the MetLife Foundation supported with a $100,000 gift−is about adding new technologies, markets, offerings and enhancing the role of the volunteer and providing young people more relevant learning opportunities. The generous gift from MetLife is helping JA move toward this exciting, new future.  

Classroom volunteers love JA! That's one of the takeaways from the first-ever volunteer engagement survey Junior Achievement USA conducted in January 2013, when it polled nearly 10,000 volunteers.

"We gained some excellent insights, especially in the area of digital enhancements," said Jack E. Kosakowski. "We looked at volunteers' levels of engagement, opinions of program impact and explored different modes of program delivery."

JA volunteers were nearly unanimous in saying they would recommend volunteering for JA to a friend or colleague (99 percent). However, only 16 percent volunteer with Junior Achievement because they were referred by a co-worker or friend.

"Junior Achievement should strive to capitalize on this opportunity by employing peer-to-peer recruitment strategies among its current volunteers," Kosakowski added. 

The survey revealed the volunteers particularly enjoy being in the classroom, and that JA "made it easy" to volunteer. Eighty-five percent of first-time volunteers said they would volunteer again. Using online and digital resources and delivery methods received positive responses from most volunteers, particularly Millennials and Generation X.

JA Area offices received the national data with a localized report designed to help them determine what drives their volunteers and what they can do to increase the recruitment and retention. A total of 91 JA areas (out of 121) participated in the survey.

U.S. President's Volunteer Service Award Winners Announced

Junior Achievement recently honored organizations whose employees give a significant number of volunteer hours to JA each year. At its board of directors meeting in March, Junior Achievement presented the 2011-2012 U.S. President's Volunteer Service Awards to 33 organizations. Jack E. Kosakowski said that Junior Achievement volunteers bring JA to life.

"Volunteers help young people to make a connection between what they are learning in school and what they'll need to succeed in work and life," Kosakowski said. "In doing so, they support students, their local communities and America's economic competitiveness."

Larry A. Leva, Global Vice Chairman of Quality and Risk Management for KPMG International and chairman of the Junior Achievement board of directors, added that by honoring volunteers, "we shine a spotlight on everyday heroes who are working to address pressing social challenges."

President George W. Bush established the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation in 2003 to recognize volunteers' contributions and encourage more people to serve. The council then created the President's Volunteer Service Award as a way to thank and honor volunteers. Junior Achievement became an official certifying organization in 2006.

KPMG Support Helps Create New JA Finance Park

Junior Achievement USA is collaborating with KPMG to redevelop the JA Finance Park^� curriculum. The alliance, to which KPMG is contributing $1,750,000, will target more than 150,000 students a year. Redevelopment began earlier this year, the in-classroom curriculum pilot will begin in the fall of 2013, and the new JA Finance Park simulation will be piloted in the spring of 2014. Full release is scheduled for the fall of 2014.

(From l to r): Larry Leva, KPMG Global Vice Chairman - Quality and Risk Management, KPMG LLP and current Junior Achievement USA board chairman; Emad Bibawi, Partner-Advisory at KPMG; Kathy Hannan, National Managing Partner-Corporate Responsibility and Diversity at KPMG; and Jack Kosakowski, President and CEO of Junior Achievement USA, take a photo after KPMG was presented with the U.S. President's Volunteer Service Silver Award.

JA Finance Park introduces personal financial planning and career exploration, and at the end of the course, students apply what they've learned by developing and committing to a personal budget in a hands-on simulation experience. JA Finance Park complements new economics, math, reading, writing and communication standards for schools. The redevelopment will include all classroom materials and the program technology used in the site-based simulations.

Creating and maintaining a budget will remain, but in the new version, more focus will be on the student versus the topic. For example, instead of studying financial institutions and what they do, students will learn about earning money through careers and how they can use financial institutions to manage their money. The new curriculum will be even more hands-on and interactive. All revisions will be presented from the perspective of how life will be in the future, not in the past, i.e., looking at real estate online, not in a newspaper; and online banking via computer or mobile device, versus writing paper checks and talking with a bank teller.