Junior Achievement: twenty years of training in Alaska.

• Author: Berger, Michael
• Position: Special Section: Alaska Business Hall of Fame

"I like Junior Achievement (JA) because it brings together a wide variety of students and teaches them to work together despite their differences," says Jeff Budd of Ketchikan High School.

Matanuska-Susitna Valley committee member Al Strawn adds, "Junior Achievement creates excitement, facilitates learning, and learning is the key to progress."

JA has become big business in Alaska. In 1992, almost 9,000 school children in Alaska enrolled in JA programs, along with over 300 volunteers, representing 175 companies and organizations and 198 teachers in 103 Alaska schools. Business leaders count on JA to deliver quality employees who are thoroughly trained and up-to-date on the latest technology.

Founded in 1919 in Springfield, Mass., by Horace Moses, president of Strathmore Paper Co., and Theodore Vail, chairman of AT&T, to familiarize young people with the United States' economic system, JA quickly established its method of "learning by doing."

After JA became a national program in 1942, student groups gathered to operate actual small businesses. They elected officers, selected a product, sold company stock, produced and sold a product, kept records, and if a profit was made, returned a dividend to shareholders.

In 1972, the national organization added Project Business to its program. This program opened the door for JA to junior high school social studies classrooms, reaching over 650,000 students nationwide by 1986. Applied Economics classes started at the high school level in 1982, and the new K-6 program taught elementary school students elements about business decision-making, from work-force readiness to self-esteem building.

On the 20th anniversary of JA in Alaska, eighth grade students in 28 participating communities are involved in Project Business. In Anchorage, 75 percent of all eighth-grade students take project classes. About 20 sessions are held in Fairbanks.

The Alaska JA chapter is managed by a volunteer board of directors and a paid staff. Local area volunteer district program committees raise funds, plan programs and recruit consultants.

HANDS-ON HEADWAY

"The objective behind JA lessons is to bridge the gap between students and the real world of business and economics," says JA volunteer Lee Monthei, construction manager for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. "Students are exposed to real-life situations and ideas and are very attentive and eager to learn."

Monthei says the Valdez school system started teaching Project Business in...