Questions and Answers with Steve Kime
Questions and Answers with Steve Kime

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Published: May 23, 2008

Q: What is Junior Achievement?

A: Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to educating students about work force readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs.

Locally, Junior Achievement of Greater Oklahoma City's purpose is to teach K-12 students the value of business and economics in order to improve the quality of their lives. Our mission is to "inspire and prepare young people to be successful in a global economy.”

Through corporate and community funding, Junior Achievement covers the costs of volunteer recruitment and training, and provides all in-class volunteers with a comprehensive kit that contains all workbooks, handouts, posters and supplies needed to successfully lead a Junior Achievement program. JA of OKC is a recognized 501(c) (3) organization.

Q: What are the goals of Junior Achievement?

A: Junior Achievement delivers 22 programs that are grade-appropriate, interactive and effective. Elementary programs teach students about their roles as individuals, workers and consumers in a free enterprise, democratic society. Middle and high school programs teach students about key economic, ethical and work force issues that they will face after school.

JA of Greater Oklahoma City offers its in-school programs at no charge to interested schools.

Q: How does the organization go about achieving those goals?

A: Junior Achievement programs combine classroom instruction with experiential learning that reinforces language arts, social studies, math and technology skills. Students involved in JA learn economic, civic and entrepreneurial concepts needed to become contributing citizens in the working world.

Junior Achievement programs are taught by volunteers from the business community. While leading students through hands-on activities, the volunteer "consultant” also shares his or her professional and life experiences to make students' classroom education relevant to the real world.

Q: Can you give me an example of how Junior Achievement would implement a program in a typical classroom?

A: The school administrator would contact JA. Our role is to find a volunteer from the community to go into a classroom and present the JA financial literacy curriculum. The Oklahoma City office serves as a liaison between the community volunteer and the school. Our volunteers come from various corporate backgrounds. Many of our volunteers are from the banking, insurance, medical and energy industries. We also have retired individuals that go into the classroom and serve as mentors to students.

Business Writer Don Mecoy