JA History :: Our Story

1970 - 1981

1970 - Dick Maxwell, former president of the Better Business Bureau takes over leadership of Junior Achievement Inc. He streamlines the National Board from 400 members to 60. 

1971 – After the creation of a research and development department, a new program for junior high students is drafted called Project Business. The program of economics and business education supplements eighth and ninth grade social studies classes one day a week, for one semester. For the first time, corporate volunteers bring business realities into the classroom.

Mid-1970s - Business Basics is designed to bring basic business knowledge to students in the fifth and sixth grades. Achievers who have operated JA companies receive training to be instructors.

February 1975 - Junior Achievement Inc. relocates to Stamford, Conn.

1975 - Junior Achievement establishes the National Business Leadership Conference to honor outstanding business leaders and contributors. Fortune Magazine agrees to develop a slate of nominees and its editors choose the laureates. Held in Chicago, the first conference begins with lunch honoring JA Area presidents, followed by a seminar between Achievers and a panel of business leaders. The ceremony is capped with a dinner inducting the laureates into the National Business Hall of Fame.

1981 - JA pilots Applied Economics (AE), a high school level, full semester, economics curriculum. Junior Achievement is now the largest supplier of economics education to public and parochial schools in the country.

 

 

 

Read the book Junior Achievement: A History by Joe Francomano and Wayne & Darryl Lavitt to learn more about the history of Junior Achievement.