February 8, 2023
At Junior Achievement of Maine, our goal is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed. We promote financial literacy, work and career readiness, and entrepreneurship by placing volunteers in classrooms for grades K-12 who will teach Junior Achievement based curriculum.
It’s all done in an effort to provide Maine students with skills they need to enter the workforce. If I had personally gone directly into the workforce after graduating high school rather than going to college right off, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have had any idea where to start or known what was expected of me.
That’s why programs like ours are so important. There are a lot of schools that want this kind of curriculum to be added to student learning, and it’s nice to know they are onboard with our initiatives.
I once taught a classroom of students how to apply for a job, which meant teaching all the intricacies of how to fill out a resume. These are the kind of skills young people need in order to be successful as adults. It helps them feel prepared as they venture out on their own personal journeys of success.
We recognize that Maine has a lot of wonderfully successful small businesses too, and many people living in this state have an entrepreneurial mindset. We hope the skills we teach will encourage young people to also be local business owners one day.
It’s important to note that our work wouldn’t be possible without the support of our communities and the efforts of our volunteers. In an effort to recognize current volunteers and potentially recruit new members, we will be hosting our 7th Annual JAM Fest on April 27th at Rising Tide Brewing Company.
Anyone is welcome to attend our networking event to learn more about what our volunteers do. Whether you’re actively interested in volunteering, want to celebrate our work or just want to learn more about what we do, please consider joining us! Overall, it will be a very fun, lighthearted event.
— Abby Rioux, Development Coordinator at Junior Achievement of Maine
