Junior Achievement of Arkansas

Arkansas doesn’t require that school children be taught economics, so the weight falls on Junior Achievement of Arkansas, a nonprofit organization that aims to prepare students for their financial lives.

Created nationally in 1919, Junior Achievement spread across the nation and is now implemented in all 50 states. It arrived in Arkansas in 1987.

The organization reached 12,000 students in grades K-12 in the state during the 2003-04 school year and hopes to keep adding more.

“There are many students in the state of Arkansas that have no business role model,” said Sharon Thomas, president of Junior Achievement. “By partnering community business volunteers with K-12 students, JA helps fill an educational gap by introducing principles based on economics and free enterprise.”

Junior Achievement goes into elementary, middle and high schools with a planned curriculum designed to make economic issues relevant to children at each level. The nonprofit’s Pinnacle Club, which is a volunteer group of young professionals in the state, helps recruit and retain other volunteers while also helping to implement the programs in schools.

Junior Achievement’s student population has seen steady growth of nearly 6 percent a year during the past four years and expects to maintain that increase throughout 2005. According to Thomas, the organization is planning a technological update for 2006 that is expected to in-crease the number of students reached by double digits.

The group is also ensuring further growth by developing local boards throughout the state under the direction of the Little Rock headquarters. There are currently boards in Faulkner and Saline counties and a third in northwest Arkansas.

Partnerships are important to Junior Achievement. The group works closely with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Our Town, Harding University’s Upward Bound program and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Share America.