Welcome to Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches
Each year we recruit and train hundreds of adult volunteers to help teach over 30,000 students in K-12 classrooms across Palm Beach and Martin Counties how America works. Junior Achievement uses hands on experiences to help young people understand the economics of life. Through partnerships with business and educators, Junior Achievement brings the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential.
In order to help meet the challenges faced by many young students in our community, local business leaders began looking for a constructive way for corporations to contribute to the economic education of Palm Beach County’s youth. In 1981, a committee of the West Palm Beach Rotary Club led a series of meetings with the School District of Palm Beach County in an effort to support business, economic and workforce readiness education in area schools.
Junior Achievement was soon chartered and in 1984 became an independent office of JA Worldwide. By 1992, Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches expanded its services to Martin and Hendry County. In the 2006/2007 school year Junior Achievement programs reached some 30,000 young people, through 1,200 to 1,500 volunteers, in over 135 different schools.
Junior Achievement is the successful bridge between education and business, by providing students at all levels, K-12 with the information they need to be informed about the American free enterprise system and to be workforce ready.
The core purpose of Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches, Inc. is to educate and inspire young people to:
- value the American free enterprise system and entrepreneurship;
- understand business and economics;
- be workforce ready; and to
- improve the quality of their lives
This is our 24TH year of providing excellence in economic education in Palm Beach, Martin and Hendry Counties. With over 20,000 Teachers and Volunteers since 1984 our programs have reached more than 373,000 students! In the past 3 years we served over 147,000 students, and this past year we reached 1100 5th graders in Martin County with our experiential learning curriculum, BizTown. Our goal for the current school year is to reach just over 30,000 students.
We currently serve more than 25% of the children in PBC Schools and with our BizTown program; we touch the minds of every 5TH grader in Palm Beach County. The Palm Beach School district is the 9TH largest in the nation comprised of 28% Afro/Am, 20% Latino, 2% Asian, 49% Caucasian and 14% of our students have a physical or learning disability.
Junior Achievement provides a wide range of classroom programs for grades K-12 using the latest teaching methods and technology. Our programs increase economic literacy, encourage teens to stay in school which helps reduce juvenile crime and with improved workforce readiness skills and high school graduates are better prepared to face the real world challenges and thus are a greater benefit to themselves and to our community development.
All programs are designed to support the skills and competencies identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. These programs also augment school-based, work-based, and connecting activities for communities with school-to-work initiatives.
It only takes one-hour-per-week to be a classroom volunteer and help make an important difference in the lives of area students.
