Today and Beyond

July 1, 2004 - JA Worldwide® is officially established, resulting from the merger of Junior Achievement Inc. and Junior Achievement International. 

January 2008 - Sean Rush becomes the organization’s 17th president and CEO.

Today, JA Worldwide® impacts students through a network of 139 U.S. Area Offices, and nearly 100 International Members. More than 8 million youth annually complete JA programs each year. JA recently honored its symbolic 50 millionth student.

The organization is currently working on Impact 2010, a strategic plan which calls for developing its people, expanding its programs and securing key resources.

From an idea born at a conference in 1916 dedicated to the advancement of boys’ and girls’, to the creation of the Boys’ and Girls’ Bureau in 1919 which became the Junior Achievement Bureau in 1920, JA has delivered on its promise of hope and opportunity to more than 50 million American youth and millions of additional young people around the world. With close to a century of work, JA continues to reinvent itself and remains pertinent to the advancement of youth in today’s fast-paced world. 

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