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CHANGING COURSE
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Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida, which teaches financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship, shifts to virtual methods to inspire brighter tomorrows. | BY ANGELA FISHER
here’s no doubt that going school is different this year, and families have had to grapple with new challenges and questions about their children’s education. Does my child go to school in-person, do they attend virtually, or do they do a mixture of both? Will these significant changes impact their learning? Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida has asked these questions right along with you. That’s why we accelerated our program offerings to continue delivering an impactful and important curriculum for students and educators in the 2020-2021 school year under the current unusual circumstances. A survey from Junior Achievement by research firm ENGINE Insights showed that two-thirds of teens (66%) were concerned about attending school in-person, with a significant percentage (39%) responding that they were “extremely” or “very” concerned. It’s likely that your child, and you as their parent, shared these concerns as you made decisions earlier this fall. We, along with you, want the best for our local students and want them to feel confident as they continue
their education. So, we developed two new virtual program delivery models available this school year to continue to provide them with the tools, resources and support they need to navigate these uncertain times. Our volunteer-delivered, kindergarten-through-12th-grade virtual programs foster work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills and use experiential learning to inspire students in our community to dream big and reach their potential, despite our current challenges. Did you know that Junior Achievement students are 30% more likely to get a bachelor’s degree, and 67% more likely to get an advanced degree? They’re also 14% more likely to start their own business, 143% more likely to be business owners, and earn 20% more than their peers. I would encourage you to speak with your children’s teachers and determine how they can implement our new programs in their classrooms. We’re here to help them as well as they tackle new ways of teaching this year. In addition to our formal programming, Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida has made free online resources, such as activities and videos, available to parents. Many of you are
tackling virtual learning with your children for the first time. You can easily access these resources at jaswfl.org. We couldn’t do this critical work without the help of our valuable volunteers and sponsors. With our new virtual programming, we have the potential to reach more students than ever before. Volunteering has also been made simpler as it can be done from the home or office, or even prerecorded. Those interested in volunteering can visit our website to submit a volunteer form and be contacted by an education manager. All our volunteers receive training, connection to the classroom, content to share with students and support to ensure the process goes smoothly. Funding is also vital to continue this critical work helping to shape our future generations and providing support to parents like you, as well as our outstanding educators. Donations and sponsorships of all levels are welcome and can be made easily on our website. Our ultimate goal is to support the dreams of our youth and instill in them that anything is still possible. If we demonstrate our belief in them together, they will believe in themselves, too. After that, the sky is the limit.
Angela Fisher is the president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida. She has a passion for providing opportunities for youth and assisting in building a better community for our region.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA PARENT & CHILD » NOVEMBER 2020 » 49
