Press Release:
Sharks Foundation
Students Win 11th Annual Junior Achievement
“School is Cool” Poster Contest
Sponsored by The Sharks Foundation
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 20, 2002
(digital photos available from San Jose Sharks & Junior Achievement)
For more information:
Rob Jaynes Wendy Walleigh
408-999-5753 408-988-8900
rjaynes@svse.net wwalleigh@yahoo.com
San Jose, California. On Tues., May 21, 2002 at the Berryessa Union School District Board meeting, three San Jose middle school students will become winners along with the NHL Pacific Division Champions, San Jose Sharks. Working with Junior Achievement of Santa Clara for 11 years, The Sharks Foundation has sponsored the “School is Cool” poster contest in local middle schools to drive home the goal of staying in school.
Open to over 2,000 middle school students in San Jose, 100 posters were submitted, from which three finalists were selected by staff from The Sharks Foundation and community relations from the Sharks main organization. The winning posters were all from Sierramont Middle School in the Berryessa Union School District of San Jose:
1st Place: Van Le
Van, Chris and Rachel will receive savings bonds, plaques, gift certificates to favorite local stores, and San Jose Shark mementos. And the honor of having banners, created from their posters, hung in the Shark Tank and soon in the Berryessa School District headquarters. San Jose Sharks CFO and Junior Achievement Board Member, Gregg Olson, said, “We are delighted to continue inspiring our local students’ creativity as well as underlining the importance of staying in school for life success. Junior Achievement, an excellent organization, has made it easy for the San Jose Sharks to support this worthwhile middle school student activity.”
As part of their ongoing community effort, The Sharks Foundation has focused on supporting student programs at multiple grade levels: reading literacy in elementary school and Junior Achievement’s “School is Cool” in middle school. Junior Achievement of Santa Clara County’s middle school programs support the Sharks ongoing focus on students in the community. Together over the coming school year, Junior Achievement and the San Jose Sharks will drive home the goal for middle school students to remain in school to become successful, educated members of Silicon Valley business and community.
Junior Achievement of Santa Clara County is the premier K – 12 local economic education organization, serving Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Santa Clara Counties. Globally, Junior Achievement is the largest and fastest-growing nonprofit economic education organization, annually teaching over 4 million elementary, middle school and high school students in 106 countries. Since 1953, Junior Achievement has partnered with Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay businesses, communities and educational institutions to help young people familiarize themselves with business concepts. Junior Achievement’s mission is for students to be inspired and educated by volunteer role models, who help these youth succeed by linking education to the world of work. Junior Achievement’s unique approach to accomplish its mission is that local business organizations’ volunteers combine their work experience with up-to-date Junior Achievement-developed courses to teach students how to apply basic skills and critical thinking to solve complex problems in the “real world.” Armed with this fundamental business and community understanding, 25,000 students annually, in every school grade, learn to become active contributors to the Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay economy. Junior Achievement of Santa Clara County: Inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs and technologists, one classroom at a time. For more information and to volunteer, visit http://www.jascc.org or call 408-988-8915.
