About JA - About Our Office
Organization Overview
Junior Achievement was founded in 1919 by Theodore Vail, president of American Telephone & Telegraph; Horace Moses, president of Strathmore Paper Co.; and Senator Murray Crane of Massachusetts. Its first program, The Company Program, was offered to high school students on an after-school basis. In 1975, the organization entered the classroom with the introduction of Project Business for the middle grades. In the last 25 years, Junior Achievement has gradually expanded its activities and broadened its scope to encompass an ever-widening student population. Locally, Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada was established in 1996.Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students in grades K-12 about financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship through experiential, hands-on programs.
Our 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’s unique approach allows volunteers from the community to deliver our curriculum while sharing their experiences with students. Embodying the heart of JA, our classroom volunteers transform the key concepts of our lessons into a message that inspires and empowers students to believe in themselves, showing them they can make a difference in the world.
Junior Achievement is a partnership between the business community, educators and volunteers — all working together to inspire young people to dream big and reach their potential. JA’s hands-on, experiential programs teach the key concepts of financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship to young people all over the world.
