Central High School Students – First JA High School Heroes

January 16, 2008

[Springfield, MA] On Tuesday, January 15, 2008, 22 students from Mr. Cedric Cunningham’s Career Development class at Springfield Central High School participated in the first JA High School Heroes JA in A Day event. The students in teams of two or three, along with six business volunteers, presented JA programs to all 297 students at Mary M. Lynch School in Springfield.

The High School Heroes Program was developed by JA Program Manager, Rebecca MacGregor, who wanted to offer JA Success Skills to high school students to provide them with opportunities to improve their interpersonal skills, problem-solving and teamwork skills as well as boost their self-image. Then follow up with four hours of JA Volunteer training. Once the High School Heroes have completed the JA Volunteer training they are ready to present JA elementary grade programs.

The JA High School Heroes Program was funded by grants from The Davis Foundation and The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. As part of the program the High School Heroes received polo shirts in recognition of their extra efforts.

Rosemarie Laboy, one of the JA High School Heroes said after her JA in A Day experience teaching third graders, “I liked it because I like kids. Its fun and I want to do it again.” Mike Nguyen noted that “I wish we had been able to do this project earlier in the semester because I felt the whole JA experience helped me bond with my classmates.” Their teacher, Mr. Cunningham felt the class was so beneficial to his students that he is implementing the JA High School Heroes Program during the second semester and has asked some of the first semester students to serve as mentors for the upcoming class. Jeremy LaFrancis noticed that “Teaching is hard. The kids can space out and as a teacher you need to interact with them and keep them interested. It’s a lot of work!”

When Tara Christian Clark, Principal of Mary M. Lynch School was asked what she thought about the JA High School Heroes Program she said, “I think this is a great idea! It gives our high school students the opportunity to be introduced to the teaching career and gets them involved with the younger students.” Ms. Gilligan, a first grade teacher at the school said of her two High School Heroes volunteers, My Duyer Cao and Helen Nguyen, “These young ladies are terrific. They are doing a fantastic job teaching the program.”

“Nothing makes a person feel more important than when a young child looks at you with a big smile while you’re teaching your JA program and says ‘this is the best day!’ That’s one of the reasons we started the JA High School Heroes Program, so our high school students can see they can make a difference and to help improve their self-confidence. These young High School Heroes are going to be great future leaders.” noted Jennifer Connolly, President of Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts. To learn more about JA and how you can become involved, visit our web site at www.jawm.org

About Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and free enterprise. Through a dedicated volunteer network, JA provides in-school and after-school programs for students in grades K-12. JA offers educational programs that focus on seven key content areas: business, citizenship, economics, entrepreneurship, ethics/character, financial literacy, and career development. Today more than Junior Achievement Worldwide reaches almost seven million students in 98 countries. For more information, visit www.jawm.org.