For more information:
Wendy Walleigh
408-988-8915 x208
wwalleigh@jascc.org

On Friday evening, June 20, 2003, members of the winning student team from the Spring 2003 JA Company Student Competition will participate in the prestigious Northern California Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of the Year Awards. These Yerba Buena High School seniors from San Jose will have an exhibit table during the reception before dinner. Students will be prepared to discuss all business aspects of their JA Company with the Ernst & Young guests and entrepreneurs. Everyone should be impressed with these students. In one semester, their BEARific student company successfully sold all of their bear-products to their high school friends, neighborhood, and families and not only provided 100% return on investment to their stockholders, but also paid each a $1.44 dividend.

Ernst & Young has invited Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley & Monterey Bay to participate in their program in order to encourage the development of young entrepreneurs and bring the community together. The long-running Entrepreneur Of the Year Awards will introduce and hopefully inspire these San Jose students to reach for the stars by seeing the long-term results of entrepreneurship among the evenings' winning executives and companies. As important, the many leading companies and Ernst and Young guests will observe first-hand what the next generation of entrepreneurs is doing today.

These Yerba Buena High School seniors were selected for their BEARific Company's success at the competition held April 29, 2003 at Santa Clara University. They were judged by a panel of Silicon Valley business leaders, including several Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Laureates, such as Maryles Casto - Casto Travel, Lata Krishnan - America India Foundation, Glen McLaughlin - CEO Venture Leasing, Joe Parisi - CEO Therma, Dan Perez - former Exec. VP Solectron, and Jay Pinson - retired Dean at SJSU and President Applied Materials Global University.

One distinguished JA Alumna who exemplifies JA's entrepreneurial spirit, San Jose Council Member, Cindy Chavez, congratulates Junior Achievement on fifty years of "exemplary work in teaching children the importance of entrepreneurship. My own experiences in Junior Achievement helped me to become the person I am today. Through JA, I was able to develop responsibility, leadership, and confidence in my ability to succeed. For that, I am grateful." The Northern California Ernest and Young Entrepreneur Of the Year Awards is one of the many activities in which Junior Achievement is participating to celebrate our 50th Anniversary in Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay. Junior Achievement looks forward to enabling students to become the future generations of entrepreneurs during our next fifty years.

50th Anniversary Factoids of Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay

953, Junior Achievement has partnered with businesses, communities and schools from Silicon Valley to Monterey Bay to serve over 350,000 students.

Junior Achievement connects business and education by placing volunteers in the classroom to teach kids how business works, their role in the economy, and the importance of education to their success in life.

Thanks to 150 companies and 3,000 volunteers, this year JA has prepared over 31,000 students from more than 130 schools to be successful citizens and workers in Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay.

Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay is the premier Kindergarten - 12th grade economic education organization.

Well-known local alumni include:

ABC and Discovery TV Broadcaster, JuJu Chang
Lockheed Martin former President, Tony Tuffo Cirrus
Logic Chairman, Mike Hackworth
San Jose City Council Member, Cindy Chavez

A recent study by Western Institute of Research and Evaluation found that:

o At each grade level JA elementary school students had far greater comprehension of economic principles than a comparison student group

o Compared to non-participants' basic economic understanding

- JA middle school students taking JA Enterprise in Action scored 17.5% higher

- JA high school students participating in JA Company Program scored 10.6% higher.

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 over 350,000 young people the principles of free enterprise so that they understand business and economics and are workforce-ready. Only Junior Achievement teaches K - 12^th 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, over 31,000 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.