Junior Achievement educates and inspires young people to value free enterprise, business, and economics to improve the quality of their lives. Our core purpose is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.

Description:
Junior Achievement of the Bluegrass provides in-school economics education programs in K-12 classrooms throughout Central Kentucky. Programs are taught by volunteers from the business community. JA provides training, materials, and an engaging curriculum that is proven to help improve student test scores. Volunteers use these materials to go into the classroom and share their knowledge, expertise, and enthusiasm with students. All JA programs emphasize the connections between education and career success. The age-appropriate curricula teach elementary students about their roles as individuals, workers, and consumers. Middle school and high school programs help students prepare for key economic and workforce issues they will face. Volunteers can choose to work with a particular age group, school, or geographic location.
Junior Achievement is the successful bridge between business and education. By volunteering in the classroom, JA consultants serve as role models and truly make a difference in the lives of area students.

History:
Junior Achievement started in 1919 as a collection of small, after-school business clubs for students in Springfield, Massachusetts. Today JA is an international not-for-profit that annually provides business and economics education for almost 5 million students in the United States and over 2 million additional students internationally.

Junior Achievement of the Bluegrass was founded in 1963 and serves students in Fayette and seventeen surrounding counties. In 2005-2006 Junior Achievement volunteers served over 15,700 students in 697 classrooms. This represents an almost 300% growth in the number of students served in the past 5 years.

Contact people:

Ron Wigglesworth, Program Manager, (phone), (email) Lynn Hudgins, President, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (859) 219-1763

Address:

711 Millpond Rd. Lexington, KY 40514 (See a map)

Web Site: http://lexington.ja.org

Directions:

From outbound Nicholasville Rd., turn right onto Man O'War. Turn left at the 3rd stoplight onto Boston Rd. Turn left onto Millpond at the 4 way stop. Turn left into the second driveway, we're at the top of the hill.