History of JA

Junior Achievement was founded here in Western Massachusetts in 1919 by Horace Moses, President of Strathmore Paper, Theodore Vail, President of American Telegraph and Telephone and Senator Murray Crane. These three gentlemen started JA as a collection of small, after-school business clubs for students in Springfield. From its humble start with a handful of children, ages 10-12, JA has grown to become a worldwide organization serving more than 7 million students, grades K-12, around the globe.

In 1919, Horace Moses, Theodore Vail and Senator Crane envisioned a program where students were taught how to think and plan for a business, acquire supplies and talent, build their own products, advertise and sell.

Today the purpose of JA, remains basically the same, is to educate and inspire youth to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives.In partnership with business and educators, we are able to bring the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential while promoting work-force readiness and teaching life skills.

Junior Achievement is the world's largest and fastest-growing non-profit economic education organization. Our programs are taught by classroom volunteers from the business community in your area across America and in over 103 countries worldwide.

Junior Achievement is a volunteer driven, non-profit organization, which correlates to the Massachusetts State Frameworks set by the DOE and the MCAS standards. This year more than 350 local business professionals, parents, retirees and college students will enter our schools to teach Junior Achievement programs. These volunteers use their personal experiences to make the Junior Achievement curricula practical and realistic. Providing children with positive adult role models, who illustrate ways to build self-confidence, develop skills and find avenues of success in our free enterprise system, is a hallmark of Junior Achievement.