For more information:
Wendy Walleigh
408-988-8915 x208
wwalleigh@jascc.org
On Friday, November 22, 2002, the Santa Clara University MBA students in Women in Business who volunteered to teach Junior Achievement in a Day expected to feel good about spending time with children in the community. But these future MBAs found they truly enjoyed applying in real-time their classes from SCU's Leavey Business School, and especially making business education exciting for 1st through 5th graders. And these MBA students improved their own daily communication skills. Arpana Tiwari, a current MBA student, said, "I learned that teaching and communicating are not just telling someone everything you know, but adding ideas and value to what someone knows, then making that tangible, to be remembered."
The Women in Business group who taught Junior Achievement at Pomeroy Elementary typifies the diversity of SCU's MBA students and graduates: both females and males and a wide range of ethnicities, e.g., Indians, Viet Namese, Korean, Chinese and Caucasians. As is common across Santa Clara University, they had already volunteered in the community in multiple ways. For the second time this year (they taught JA in a Day at Rose Elementary School, Milpitas, in May 2002) Women in Business chose to work with Junior Achievement because it bridges their work and MBA studies with education and community. Since 1953, Junior Achievement has partnered with Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay businesses, communities and educational institutions to teach K-12th grade students the principles of free enterprise so that they understand business and economics, are workforce-ready, and are prepared to be successful, contributing citizens in our community.
Working in pairs and solo at Pomeroy Elementary School in Santa Clara, the SCU Women in Business students spent the day teaching the Junior Achievement elementary school programs to children ranging from ages 6 to 12. Each grade learns different concepts about their community and working in business. AND as important, from the wonderfully diverse volunteer role models, students learn about the importance of staying in school, getting as much education as possible, and new career opportunities. For example, when Arpana introduced herself as a human resource professional, one child said, "Oh, you give people jobs." And again later, Arpana knew she connected the Junior Achievement curriculum to real life when she and her fourth graders were calculating number of units sold based on target profit during the income and expenses activity. One student asked about income, "My mommy gives me dollars to spend. Is that my income?"
Santa Clara University has a long-standing partnership with Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay. Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business hosted JA"s Student Company Competition on December 4 at the SCU campus. Pat Guerra, Executive Director of their Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship kicked off AND SCU Marketing Professor Fred Hoar—retired CEO of Miller Shandwick PR firm--M.C.'d the December 4th event. There are many other ongoing associations between Junior Achievement and Santa Clara University. Student organizations in addition to Women in Business--Accelerated Cooperative Education (ACE) to Retail Management Institute—teach in local elementary schools using Junior Achievement classroom curricula. Several JA Business Hall of Fame Laureates are Santa Clara graduates, including Father Paul Locatelli, SCU President and John Sobrato, Sr. In addition many SCU alumni actively support Junior Achievement.
To sum up the SCU Women in Business team's experience at Pomeroy School's JA in a Day, Daniele Dattilo, said, "My third grade class learned about building a city and establishing businesses in that city—a restaurant, newspaper, and bank. The students made business decisions, such as who to hire, how to make money, and how to keep growing. I loved spending the entire day in the classroom helping students see the link between what they learn in school and how it will help them in their future careers." To Junior Achievement, its partnership with Santa Clara University continues to grow in depth and breadth. To SCU's Women in Business, the JA in a Day is a meaningful extension of their education and business experience. To Santa Clara University, its partnership with Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay is a natural match of interests as well as mission.
Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley & Monterey Bay is the premier K - 12 economic education organization. Globally, Junior Achievement is the largest and fastest-growing nonprofit economic education organization, annually teaching 6 million elementary, middle school and high school students in over 110 countries. Junior Achievement's mission is to ensure that every child in America has a fundamental understanding of the free enterprise system. Since 1953, Junior Achievement has partnered with businesses, communities and schools from Silicon Valley to Monterey Bay to teach young people the principles of free enterprise so that they understand business and economics and are workforce-ready. Only Junior Achievement teaches K - 12th grade students about the relevance of school to their future success by using community and business role models to bring our classroom programs to life. In multiple classroom visits, these volunteers use their experience and knowledge to help students become workforce-ready by applying critical thinking and school skills to solving real-world problems. As a result, approximately 27,500 children from this past year will impact Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay communities as successful individuals, workers and consumers. Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley & Monterey Bay: Impacting local economic education one classroom at a time. For more information and to get involved, visit http://www.jascc.org or call 408-988-8915.
About The Leavey School of Business
The Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University began in 1926, and was one of the first business schools in the country to receive national accreditation. It undergraduate business program has been recognized as one of the best in California, and it MBA program has been ranked in the nation's top 20 part-time programs. More than 80 percent of its 1,043 MBA students are working professionals in Silicon Valley. For more information, see http://business.scu.edu.
About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California's Silicon Valley, offers its 8,054 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the third-highest graduation rate among all U.S. masters' universities, California's oldest higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. More information is on line at http://www.scu.edu.
