JA History :: Our Story
1960 - 1969
1960 - John Davis Lodge, former Congressman, and former Ambassador to Spain becomes the first full-time paid president and CEO of Junior Achievement Inc,
1962 - Lodge resigns to run for the United States Senate and Donald J. Hardenbrook, former executive of the Union Bag Paper Company takes over the reins of Junior Achievement Inc.
1966 – A new Company Manual is produced, one for Achievers and one for Advisors, along with a banking manual explaining two banking systems. These publications help refine the JA program.
The National Association of Junior Achievement Companies (NAJAC)
expands to provide Achievers with an opportunity to
participate in discussion groups and workshops with top
business leaders and educators. Reader’s Digest publisher DeWitt Wallace, a long-time JA
sponsor, forms a Speakers Corps. Achievers are groomed and
sent out as speakers to special events around the country to
tell the JA story.
1967 - The Johnson Administration requests JA work with the National Alliance for Business developing jobs for youth. The program is called the Summer Job Education Program, organizing teenagers into small JA companies using JA center facilities and equipment.
Late 1960s - The mood of many young people is anti-business. Students for a Democratic Society spread ideas even to the high schools that JA is a tool of capitalism.
Read the book Junior Achievement: A History by Joe Francomano and Wayne & Darryl Lavitt to learn more about the history of Junior Achievement.
