Chapter One
Junior Achievement :
Learning to achieve success

        Not all business lessons are best learned in a classroom.

        Often the best advice comes from those who have been there, done that, and lived to tell about it.

        That’s core to the guiding philosophy behind Junior Achievement, a venerable non-profit organization that brings business leaders and youth together in a unique learning experience.
        And these highly educational JA programs give their youthful participants the rare opportunity to truly experience what it’s like founding and running their own small business and grappling with everything the reality of such a worthy undertaking clearly implies.
        In recent years, young people taking part in Junior Achievement of Hamilton programs have been able to learn from the expertise earned by such prominent area business leaders as Tim Hortons co-founder Ron Joyce, billionaire businessman Michael G. DeGroote, and many others who lend financial support and advice to JA programs.
        And when Joyce, DeGroote or another business leader takes the stage at a JA event to relate their life story and explain how they overcame obstacles to achieve success, their message is of great value to the young JA participants.
        Simply put, it fuels the participants’ quest for knowledge of how businesses work and achieve success.
        But many Junior Achievement programs focus on high school age children age 13-19, during a pivotal time in their lives.
        After all, it’s during the high school years when they’re encountering mounting scholastic workloads, peer pressures of all sorts, self-doubts, personal/physical changes and questions concerning what career they’d like to eventually pursue and what exactly they’d like to achieve in life.
        These young people are at a cross-roads in life: No longer little children but not yet mature adults; grappling with uncertainties; exploring a range of options; and in need of positive direction.
        And they find that positive direction is readily provided by Junior Achievement programs that give them with hands-on experience towards founding and running their own temporary small business.
        For many of these young people, this is often their first exposure to the business world. Depending on their background and personal tastes, they may not have ever considered a business career as a meaningful option.
        But through JA, they participate in running a business, get their commercial feet wet, gain an understanding of the world of commerce, and are better able to determine if they’d like to consider a career in business as one of their top employment choices.
        At the very least, JA programs give them some familiarity with a business world they may have previously found mysterious and confusing, perhaps even bewildering.
        The participants gain insight into the workings of business and an appreciation of what it takes to develop and market a product or service.
        They also take part in problem-solving and marketing tasks outside of a classroom setting. They’re in charge of the companies they start-up and that means thinking on their own, employing their own logic and creativity, tapping into their budding people skills and leadership traits.
        Perhaps the best-known JA program is its flagship Company Program, in which 20 pr more high school students get together one evening per week for 24 weeks to found, own and operate their own company.
        Beyond offering a degree of on-the-job experience, the Company Program – under the guidance of business expert volunteers – also builds teamwork skills, self-confidence and self-esteem as the company partners work together to choose and market a product; track expenditures and finances; pay bills and wages; and, ideally, go on to achieve the goal of earning a profit.
        The participants also get the opportunity to make new friends, consider different points of view and take part in JA conferences and awards events.
        In Hamilton, JA of Hamilton’s Company Program runs each year from late October through to May. It operates out of three area centres: JA of Hamilton headquarters at Lloyd D. Jackson Square; the North Hamilton Community Health Centre and the Stoney Creek Optimist Club House (for more information, contact JA at: 905-528-5252).
        For the participants, the Company Program opens their eyes to a new world of business opportunities and an educational process that for some is a whole lot more interesting and fun than school.
        Indeed, the Company Program presents a truly challenging and rewarding process: The youthful participants take well-earned pride in the companies they create. But now, how do they deal with the realities of marketing? How do they bring their product or service to the buying public? What is the market demand for their goods and services?
        As well, how do they best exploit each of their partners’ strengths – and how do they resolve any problems that arise?
        For the first time in their young lives, they may gain a real and lasting understanding of the role of business in our economy, in our workplaces, in our nation, in our lives.
        Yes, it’s a learning experience. And it’s a learning experience unlike any other because it can impart and develop business skills that will literally last a lifetime.
        In essence, Junior Achievement allows youth to explore the world of business with the help of expert navigators.
        Some of the very real benefits to youth are detailed on JA’s website – www.jahamilton.org - which advises its young participants: “JA empowers you and gives you the tools you need to help make the decisions to shape your future. Whether you have one career throughout your life or five, whether you end up working at the local coffee shop or owning it, the skills and attitudes you learn in Junior Achievement last a lifetime.”
        The website adds: “All JA programs are unique and have a common theme – they reflect real life and are delivered by business volunteers – the front-line people who make the decisions.”
        In addition to the Company Program, Junior Achievement offers additional programs, including the Economics of Staying in School program aimed at Grade 8 students.
        The ESIS program focuses on keeping students in school by taking a logical rather than preachy stance: Students receive help in developing a positive attitude toward school and are given insight into the low-wage and high-living-costs scenario they can expect to face if they drop out and try living on their own.
        As well, the ESIS program helps students understand the correlation between a good education and a good job. They get to contemplate what type of career might interest them – and what educational qualifications they would need to pursue this goal. Help is also offered in developing job interview and resume-writing skills.
        Other JA programs focus on improving students learning capabilities, helping them cope with changes to the Ontario curriculum and other scholastic challenges.

        And the programs offered by Junior Achievement of Hamilton have grown sharply in popularity.
        For example, in the early 1990s, 1,500 young people participated in JA programs.
        A mere 10 years later, that number had more than tripled to over 4,500 participants and was estimated at 5,000 participants in 2002.
        And there’s no sign of this phenomenal growth rate slowing down.
        Indeed, each and every year, a new group of young people emerges to take part in Junior Achievement programs.
        In fact, Junior Achievement itself is by far the oldest and fastest-growing economic education program for young people in the entire world due, in part, to the contribution made by the many caring companies and business people who support this organization.
        “From the high school students who run their own miniature businesses to the Grade Eight students who learn the importance of staying in school, these achievers are gaining valuable insight into how our system of private enterprise operates,” she adds.
        “The benefits include: Better-informed consumers, voters, leaders, entrepreneurs and employees – and employers – for tomorrow.”
        Shears notes that in 2001, “over 4,500 students ‘started now’ for their future.”
        Despite increased operating costs and the rising cost of virtually everything else, Shears notes JA programs are more of a bargain than ever.
        “We have managed to consistently increase our student population and continue to decrease the cost of our programs,” she asserts.

        Serving Hamilton and area since 1968, Junior Achievement of Hamilton is a charter member of the Junior Achievement of Canada national organization.
        Canada itself is a proud member nation of Junior Achievement International.
All JA programs emphasize the importance of a good education. The JA programs also help students develop positive attitudes and enthusiasm for the necessity of lifelong learning.
        For more information, visit the Website: www.jahamilton.org.
        The JA Hamilton Alumni Association was formed in 1999 to locate the more than 44,000 people who have participated in JA Hamilton since the organization was founded in 1968.
        Today, the alumni association has more than 350 active members from all walks of life and from around the world.
        The JA alumni’s mission is to promote Junior Achievement of Hamilton’s mandate of providing hands-on economic education for youth by encouraging the involvement of past participants.
        As well, the alumni association endeavours to reunite members with past friends and associates and to provide them with a meeting place for their mutual rediscovery.
        Membership in the alumni association is open to all past members of JA of Hamilton, including, graduate achievers, volunteers, professional staff and board members.

        A burning candle: Symbol of faith and hope. And for some Mountain Secondary students, the candle also brings that elusive first job experience firms demand.
        The Mountain Secondary students are eager participants in a hands-on business program hosted at their vocational school by Junior Achievement of Hamilton.

        With advice from unpaid, volunteer consultants from the local business community, the students formed Wick-Ed, a Junior Achievement Company, which manufactures and sells bees wax candles to the consumer market.
        Other Mountain Secondary students formed their own JA companies that produced and sold products ranging from stress balls to specialty candles and toiletries gift baskets.
        All of these temporary companies fulfilled the JA mandate of providing their youthful business executives with the experience of operating a company; producing, marketing and selling products; and managing inventory, costs, revenue and consumer demand.

        This true-to-life business experience has a way of bringing out hidden talents in student participants while helping them to believe in themselves.
        “They’re tasting success and it’s giving them confidence,” notes Lorne Evans, vice-principal of Mountain Secondary school.
        Carol Montag, president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Hamilton, says the change in Mountain Secondary students was truly inspiring.
        “One girl, who would barely talk to me when the program started, later became so enthusiastic she would wait at the classroom door to tell me about the packages of candles she had sold,” Montag recalls with a smile.
        “Their company, Wick-Ed, became so busy that they had two students working as quality control agents,” she adds in an interview at JA of Hamilton offices at Lloyd D. Jackson Square.
        “We’ve had similar experiences and successes with our JA programs at other schools – it really is an effective way to build an awareness and appreciation of business. I love watching the students’ enthusiasm and self-confidence grow.”
        Montag notes there are some 4,000 student-participants in JA programs in Hamilton-Wentworth region. About 3,700 of the students are in 40 schools from Grade 6 through high school. The remaining 300 students take their programs at the JA offices and at a branch at the North Hamilton Community Health Centre.

        Another branch will open soon in Stoney Creek as JA reaches out to more potential participants than ever.
        The participation rate was expected to swell to more than 5,000 children early in the millennium – a five-fold increase over 1,000 participants in 1987 when Montag joined JA.
        Founded in 1919 in Springfield, Mass., JA began in Canada in 1955 and now boasts 700,000 participants every year. The movement attracts about 4 million children globally and is an independent, not-for-profit organization supported by business.
        In Hamilton, the JA program has enjoyed working partnerships with McMaster University and Mohawk College. About 60 local businesses provide volunteer consultants.
        These supporters include representatives from Stelco Inc. and Dofasco Inc.; Ron Foxcroft of Fluke Transport, John Skirving of Canadian Tire at Centre Mall, and Bob Stirling, of Stirling Print-All, to name but a few.
        Past participants have also returned to volunteer their services. Jody Bertozzi of DOVE Marketing is a former JA participant who now gives back to JA.
        “I’m lucky to work with some great business people and see the turnaround in the children,” says Montag.
        She notes JA of Hamilton’s 11th annual Governor’s Dinner was the local organization’s most successful fund-raising event ever. Billionaire businessman Michel G. DeGroote was a major sponsor. Guest speakers were Tim Hortons co-founder Ron Joyce and Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas. Montage says JA’s success at reaching young people is the hands-on involvement of the participants.
        “We provide the material, curriculum public speaking tips and concepts and the volunteer business people teach them to the students who basically put all of it into action,” she explains.
        “The students come up with the idea for a company and they sell shares to finance their business,” she adds.
        “They manufacture, market and sell a product. Then, after 26 weeks they liquidate the company and the investors are paid back. It really is experiential learning. The best way to learn anything is to actually do it.”
        Montag said the basic values driving JA are more relevant than ever before.
        “More people will be self-employed in the new generation than in any generation preceding it,” she notes, “and some experts say as many as one person in three will be self-employed.”
        “Young people, parents and teachers know experience is crucial to become workforce ready. At Junior Achievement, we teach entrepreneurship. Our students can increase the likelihood of being hired or successfully creating their own job.”