Volunteering Opportunities

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Course Descriptions: 

JA It's My Business
If entrepreneurship is behind a country’s economic success, then what is behind entrepreneurship itself?  Can one learn to think and act like an entrepreneur?  Most definitely.  This program teaches students the four key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs:  believing in themselves; filling a need; knowing their customer and product; and being creative and innovative.
 
JA It’s My Business will provide an engaging, academically enriching, and experiential learning sessions in entrepreneurship.  The students will be able to:
-  Define entrepreneurship
-  Identify four key entrepreneurial characteristics
-  Describe how entrepreneurs fill a market need
-  Discuss the role of market research in determining market need and competitive advantage
-  Recognize how being creative and innovative are necessary entrepreneurial skills for starting a business
-  Develop business plans based on a set criteria
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Following participation in the program, students will be able to apply their entrepreneurship skills to education, career, and service pursuits.
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JA Personal Finance
This program introduces students to the importance of planning for their financial future. The program demonstrates the roles that budgeting, investing, credit, and insurance play in securing financial
stability.  Students develop a portfolio of skills to make financial decisions and set financial goals throughout their lives.

JA Be Entrepreneurial
Students are introduced to the elements of successful business start-ups, myths and facts about entrepreneurship, and early product development.  They develop their product or service idea by analyzing various sources of successful entrepreneurial ventures, culminating in their selection of a product or service as the basis of their business plan.

​Students will be able to:

• Recognize the elements of a successful business start-up;
• Evaluate myths and facts about entrepreneurship;
• Consider product-development options;
• Recognize the importance of carefully selecting their product or service before starting their business;
• Apply their passions, talents, and skills to a market-needs assessment to determine the basis of their business plan;
• Recognize the importance of analyzing their market;
• Apply a needs assessment to the market available to a specific product;
• Define competitive advantages and recognize them in other businesses;
• Demonstrate the importance of selecting competitive advantages that give their product and market an edge on the competition; Evaluate competitive advantages;
• Select competitive advantages that drive a developing business venture;
• Evaluate short- and long-term consequences in making ethical decisions;
• Express that being ethical can be good for business;
• Compile entrepreneurial elements into a sample business plan.

JA Career Success
JA Career Success equips students with the knowledge required to get and keep a job in high-growth industries.  Students will explore the crucial workplace skills employers seek but often find lacking in young employees.  Students also will learn about valuable tools to find that perfect job, including resumes cover letters and interviewing techniques.
 
The following key topics will be discussed:
• 4Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.
• Strong soft skills.
• Work priorities.
• STEM and other high-growth industries.
• Personal-brand and job-hunting tools – resumes, cover letters, interviews, and digital profiles.
 
 
JA Our Families
 Children tend to think everything they want is something they need.  Learning to recognize the difference between the two is one of the first crucial lessons in financial literacy.  By focusing on the roles of people play in their local economy, students understand the importance of work, and the tools and skills to get – or earn – what they want.
The goals of JA Our Families are: 
- Increase the students’ knowledge of how jobs provide for a family’s needs and wants.
- Help students become more aware of the types of jobs family members hold.
- Heighten the students’ awareness of how each person contributes to the well-being of the family
- Help the students learn the importance of working to pay for needs and wants