Record Number of
Companies Adopt Schools
for a Day Using Junior
Achievement Programs

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

Despite the bad economy, many Silicon Valley companies have still taken the time to give back to their local communities, and have focused their volunteerism on teaching Junior Achievement programs in schools across the county.  In fact, a record 18 companies and organizations will have adopted 22 Santa Clara County elementary schools for a day in the 2002 - 2003 school year using Junior Achievement's JA in a Day program.  At no cost to schools, volunteers from all these wonderful companies will have taught young people 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.  During a JA in a Day, businesses and community organizations provide enough volunteers to teach the 5 modules of Junior Achievement's elementary school curriculum to every classroom in every grade at a school in a single day rather than once a week for 5 weeks.

 

Between May 30 and June 5, a record 6 companies in 1 week will deploy volunteers to teach JA programs in elementary schools in 5 different districts to teach 2,700 kids in just 1 week!  That's 10% of last year's total number of students served in 1 week!

Bank of America at Lowell School in San Jose Unified

Cap Gemini Ernest & Young at Castro School in Mountain View-Whisman

Network Appliance at Ellis School in Sunnyvale

Nortel Networks at Rose School in Milpitas

PricewaterhouseCoopers at Cherrywood School in Berryessa

Synopsys at Slater School in the Mountain View-Whisman  

The complete list of generous organizations who have given their time are as follows. Several have even adopted 2 different schools this year and many are participating for a 2^nd or 3^rd year.

A.T. Kearney - 3^rd year

Applied Materials - 3^rd year AND 2^nd this school year

Bank of America - 3^rd year AND 2^nd this school year

Cal Fed Bank (now Citibank) - 3^rd year

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young

Comerica - 3^rd year

Leadership Sunnyvale - 2^nd year

Lockheed Martin - 2^nd year

Network Appliance

Nortel Networks - 2^nd this school year

PricewaterhouseCoopers - 2^nd this school year

Rosendin Electric - 2^nd year

Santa Clara University's Women in Business - 2^nd year AND 2^nd this school year)

SBC Communications - 2^nd year

Sun Microsystems - 3^rd year

Synopsys

And for their 5^th year, Board of Directors of Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley & Monterey Bay

The increasing number of JA in a Day events reflect that everyone recognize the win-win-win-win for the organizations, communities, volunteers, and students.  Organizations win with great team-building and employee involvement while tangibly giving back to the community.  Communities win with better-prepared and motivated employees, consumers and citizens' thus far over 350,000 since our local founding in 1953.  Junior Achievement volunteers win because of their satisfying connection with kids, being role models, and knowing they sparked kids; interest in getting the most education possible for business, life, and community success.  And students win because of what they learn from the dedicated volunteer role models from local businesses and community organizations, who exemplify the strong principles and ethics that form Junior Achievement's backbone.  Particularly now as California faces a budget crisis that will affect many aspects of families lives, Junior Achievement volunteers will continue to have a truly significant impact on the youth of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay.  Junior Achievement truly applauds and appreciates generosity of these companies, organizations and their volunteers.   

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.