Last week, the announcements called for AVID 4, AVID 3, and DECA members to turn in their permission slips. But what were the permission slips for? When the announcements were checked, it was titled Junior Achievement. So, what is Junior Achievement?

According to Jennifer Burnette, AVID and Business teacher, “Junior achievement is a brand, an organization located here in Knoxville, and they work with local schools, to provide experiences for students to kinda get a taste of the real world.”

According to their website, “Junior Achievement’s mission is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed. The inspiration piece comes from community volunteers who not only deliver our lessons, but share their experience”.

Junior Achievement is not a program that you can join, however Burnette highly recommends that students participate in the field trips that Junior Achievement puts together.

Burnette also comments, “Junior Achievement has nothing to do with freshmen, sophomores, juniors, or seniors, that is completely irrelevant. Junior Achievement means, the junior population of our community, achieving through things like job shadows, guest speakers, and other experiences.”

On friday, November 12th,  the females in Burnette’s AVID 4 and some of her female students in AVID 3 went on the Miss Business field trip. The Miss Business trip is just one of the many field trips put together by Junior Achievement. According to Burnette, this year, “We’re taking advantage of Junior Achievement in three different ways, a couple of weeks ago, my AVID seniors had a guest speaking experience with some executives from the Discovery Network and these are people that live in like, Los Angeles, that we were talking to live through Teams. All organized and set up through Junior Achievement. […] The Miss Business field trip is for females only. It includes a panel of female executives in our city to talk about all different kinds of things like empowerment, best fit for jobs and advocating for yourself.”

Since the Miss Business trip is only one of the many other things that are put together and planned by Junior Achievement. Burnette mentions a few of the things that they are known for, “they [Junior Achievement] do a lot of things that we don’t take advantage of, because it’s for different grade levels. Like in elementary school they go on a trip to a palace called Biztown, which is kinda like a little mock city, where students in the fifth grade can go in and have jobs at like, Y12 Credit union, Chick-fil-a and places like that.”

So how does Junior Achievement actually help students?

According to Burnette, “Students should participate in the events because it allows them to listen to guest speakers and meet people that will help them plan their futures. It provides them with opportunities to learn about different careers and to figure out how to be a strong leader.“

The goal of Junior Achievement is to help students better prepare for their future, and have an idea of how the real world works. “We feel very fortunate that we have these opportunities provided, we are very grateful to Junior Achievement for letting us be involved and participate in these events. We just appreciate them alot.” Burnette acknowledges.

If you would like to see the Junior Achievement website for just East Tennessee here is the link:

https://jaeasttennessee.org/about/