Oh What Fun our Future is to Plan

When I was growing up, my favorite Parade Magazine issue was the annual "What We Earn."  I always looked for my fellow Utahans before the others.  I would get so excited to see the different career paths.  There were so many choices . . . like those school teachers who made all that money.  The people featured all had one thing in common, big smiles on their faces.  I could tell they all loved the career they had chosen whether they made $20 thousand or $120 thousand.  It gave me a sense of excitement and anticipation of what I would be when (or if) I grew up.  I still look forward to that magazine issue, and am sure you do too because we are all interested in our future, our children's futures, and let's be honest, the issue is just fun!

As I was looking over a similar article this morning, (not nearly as fun because there aren't real people's pictures and ages and hello, do I make that little of pay REALLY???) I got my usual Junior Achievement monologue going in my head.  (Once I make you a JA believer, you will have JA analogies, monologues and all sorts of JA fun happen to you too!)  JA is built upon three pillars:  entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness.  Click here for a quick JA summary.

We all  have needs, you know the food, clothing and shelter we learned about when we were little, and we need a career that will help us maintain those needs.   This isn't rocket science, in fact, it is first grade JA.  I love these fun articles because they help us understand if our dreams are feasible financially or not.  My dream of sitting at home all day, eating an entire bag of chocolate chips while sitting at my laptop (okay it was only a half bag, but full bag sounds so much more dramatic) came true.  Our students in first grade learn to choose careers that will facilitate their needs and their wants.  HOW ABOUT THAT?  I love it!  By 5th grade, they visit JA City and are adults for a day.  They learn that different positions within a company earn different incomes and how hard working in the business world really is.  By 8th grade in Finance Park they experience a real-life situation with bills, a family, a mortgage and how to make those ends meet.  (Even I am still working on that. . .back to 8th grade for me!)

Our JA students can look at these fun Parade articles and make decisions for their future because they are already one step ahead.  One day I hope I see some of the incredible JA students I have met, featured in one of those articles as a school teacher, nurse, computer programmer, etc, with of course, nothing but a big smile on their face.   

Click here for the not as fun as Parade article" I stumbled on (but is still a little fun).

Seriously, Why Wasn't I Like Her When I Was 18. . . Our 2011-2012 L. Dean Rees Scholarship Recipient Announced

Each September at JA's annual Board Retreat, we give our "L. Dean Rees Scholarship" recipient with their award money.  Our 2011-12 winner is Danielle Maxfield, a freshman at the University of Utah; she graduated from East High School in June.  I was so impressed with her speech, I asked her for a copy that I could add to our blog.  Please read her speech to see how Junior Achievement is changing lives everyday.

L. Dean Rees was JA's greatest volunteer.  He volunteered at Taylorsville High School for over 12 years and helped facilitate the bowl-a-thon at Savage Industries before he passed away in 2004.  We are proud to have this scholarship in his name.  Please read Danielle's speech below.  

Danielle Maxfield's speech

Given September 15, 2011

I want to begin by telling you how my experience began with Junior Achievement. I attended Bennion Elementary.  When I was in fourth grade, I remember having three individuals from Junior Achievement come in and talk to my class, two women and one man. I remember that the women were beautiful in their pencil skirts and fancy clothes. The man looked so nice in his pin-striped shirt. I was just in awe as I looked at these gorgeous adults.  I also remember hearing about how I should save money, get an education, and gain an occupation so that I could become like them.  I hung onto their every word. Throughout that week, kids asked lots of questions like, "What car do you drive" and "how much money do you make?"  Bennion Elementary School is a Title-One school. There were many minorities who hadn't seen people like this before, because most of their parents worked 3 jobs a day and couldn't afford to look like them. The fact that these volunteers would take time out of their busy lives was a huge deal. Later on, they spoke to us about honesty and how by being honest in everything we did we would come out on top and have greater success than we would otherwise. If we were honest, we could have the success they had. They eventually left, and after a few weeks I was taking a test and one of the coolest girls in school asked me for an answer to a question on the test. Even though I knew it would be wrong, I wanted to tell her the answer so badly.  I thought, 'maybe if I cheat, I can just be cool.' I wasn't very cool in elementary, actually I wasn't very cool in Junior High or High School either, but I wanted to tell her the answer so I would have the chance to be cool. Then I remembered the three people who came to my class, who had become my heroes. I thought 'if I cheat and lie, than I will not only be letting go of my integrity, I will be letting them down.' I didn't cheat.  I went on with my life not being very cool. I never became cool, but I was honest, and knew that someday I would end out on top. I didn't know when, but I knew it would happen because that's what the volunteers said.

Utah's Entrepreneur Day Features Junior Achievement

Since it seems that each American Idol contestant gets their own "day" declared by their Governor for being "somebody for the moment," it only makes sense to create an official day that actually means something.  Governor Herbert declared September 29, 2011, "Utah Entrepreneurship Day."  I think this is a tremendous idea (no, not just because I work for Junior Achievement, or advocate for it, well, okay, maybe that is part of it) because I think getting young minds to think early, dream big and realize their dreams can be accomplished with enough awareness.  The thought of that gets me excited for our future leaders (insert arm chills).  Here are two links that highlight the event: 

http://business.utah.gov/whyutah/education/eday/
http://www.pilmerpr.com/blog/

I want my own children to know that what they want is possible with hard work, dedication, the right amount of schooling and classes, etc.  Now, with that said, I not only want that for my children, I want that for every child, because I believe in it.  I feel, that if we can get enough people to believe in it, then that is when change will happen.  People will volunteer for Junior Achievement, and other organizations to teach these kids the fundamentals of what they will need to learn and how to prepare.

In life, it only takes that one person to change our point of view (in most cases).  My role model was Amanda Dickson, the radio announcer, who taught my pre-law class in college at age 20.  My pre-law class stayed "pre-law" because I never continued on, but that is a story for another day.  She made me want to work harder and be somebody.  Think of your mentor, or the person who made you want to be somebody or do something.  Now, think of a child that you could be that "somebody" for and teach them.  Way to go Governor Herbert, to celebrate not only our fantastic Utah Entrepreneurs, but to give our future entrepreneurs a hope and that one spark that they may need to begin working toward their dream.  There go those arm chills again.