JA, PNC celebrate kids’ achievements

Staff report

warren

Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley and PNC celebrated the completion of JA Financial Literacy Programs for 2010-11 at Willard K-8 School.

The PNC Foundation, which receives principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., demonstrated its ongoing support of Junior Achievement’s Economic Development Program with a $5,000 donation to be used for JA programs in Youngstown and Warren City schools.

This PNC Foundation grant to Junior Achievement aligns with a challenge grant by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation of $20,000 outright and $1 for $1 challenge grant of $5,000.

PNC and JA share the belief that the long-term success of our community depends on preparing young people for the future by learning about topics such as financial planning and budgeting, credit, saving, insurance and how to protect themselves from identity theft as they take part in Junior Achievement financial literacy programs.

“As a bank, PNC is committed to helping our customers develop healthy financial habits that will help them achieve their goals,” said Theodore M. Schmidt, PNC regional president for Youngstown.

“Junior Achievement’s Economic Development Program provides important financial education to local students to empower their success and ultimately foster the long-term health and vitality of this region,” he said.

Schmidt spoke to first-graders at the school about some of the different jobs in the banking industry, which reinforced what they had learned recently during their Junior Achievement lessons.

The first-grade program, “Our Families,” emphasizes the roles people play in the local economy and engages students with activities about needs, wants, jobs, tools and skills and interdependence.

The JA “Our Families” program enhances students’ learning of the following concepts and skills:

Concepts: business, choices, consumers, earning, economic incentives, economic institutions, employment, family, human resources, incentives, income, interdependence, jobs, money, needs, resources, scarcity, skills, spending, tools, voluntary exchange, wants, work.

Skills: analyzing information, decision-making, differentiating, drawing, following directions, interpreting symbols, listening responsively, making observations, map reading, matching, recognizing symbols, sequencing and teamwork.

All JA programs are designed to support the skills and competencies identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. These programs also augment school-based, work-based and connecting activities for communities with school-to-work initiatives.

Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley, Inc. is an organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy.

Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides in-school and after-school programs for students that focus on three key content areas: work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

Locally, JA provides programs for more than 8,300 K-12 students annually within Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

For more information, visit http://warren-youngstown.ja.org.