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V'UNIOR ACHIEVEMENT FACT SHEET 2005-2006 JA Purpose: To educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business, and economics to improve the quality of their lives. JA Mission: To ensure that every child has a fundamental understanding of the free enterprise system. Whatis Junior Achievement'? A is the world's largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics, and free enterprise. JA programs are taught by volunteers in -class and after- school at locations throughout the United States and in nearly 100 countries. A Brief History,-, Junior Achievement was founded in 1919 by Theodore Vail, President of American Telephone & Telegraph; Horace Moses, President of Strathmore Paper Co.; and Senator Murray Crane of Massachusetts. Its first program, JA Company Program, was offered to high school students on an after- school basis. In 1975, the organization entered the classroom with the introduction of Project Business for the middle grades. Since that time, JA has expanded its activities and broadened its scope to become the leader of in -school and after-school economic education programs for students ingrades K-12. Program Reach: Through offices around the nation and in nearly 100 countries Junior Achievement Worldwide reaches 6.6 million students each year. Programs: JA programs are available for grades K-12 and are delivered by trained volunteers. The volunteers are provided with age-appropriate curricula and specially designed guides that help them introduce the new topics. Elementary students learn about their roles as individuals, workers, and consumers while middlegrade and high school students explore key local and global economic and workforce issues. About the Volunteers: JA's 178,000 classroom volunteers come from all walks of life and include business people, college students, retirees, teachers, parents and even some high school students. These dedicated individuals are the backbone of our organization. Proven Success: JA is one of a few national non -profits to use independent, third party evaluators to gauge the impact of its programs. Since 1993, the Worldwide Institute for Research and Evaluation (WIRE) has conducted studies on JA's impact. Findings prove that JA has a positive impact in a number of critical areas. WIRE results are available, for free, upon request. Summaries of WIRE findings are also published in the JA Programs section of www.ia.orq. Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest, (JAUK JAUM serves students in Minnesota, North Dakota and western Wisconsin and has had a presence in this region since 1949. With the help of 1 000's of local volunteers, programs such as in -classroom, Exchange City, and Job Shadow were implemented in schools to help reach 117,000 students in the 04-05 school year.