Mentoring the Next Generation

Junior Achievement Strives to Make a Difference

Photos by Darrin Phegley

Henderson continues to benefit from the nonprofit organizations that serve our area. Junior Achievement is a nonprofit that uses volunteers to go into the classroom to talk with students about financial literacy, career and work readiness, and entrepreneurship.  They provide all materials and resources that are needed for the volunteers to have as much success as possible with the students in their given classroom. 

Making a Difference in Henderson County

In the 2022-2023 school year, 74 classes received some sort of Junior Achievement program. It is estimated that these programs reached 1,693 students in Henderson alone. Junior Achievement of West Kentucky serves eleven counties, including Henderson, Daviess, Union, and Webster. As a whole, this branch of the organization reaches around 21,000 students each year. There are several branches of the nonprofit across the United States. Chelsey Chaney, the Ohio Valley Program Manager for Junior Achievement, recently spoke about the importance of the programs offered and what Junior Achievement brings to the community. “Community members have the opportunity to be mentors to students that are interested in fields that volunteers are working in,” said Chelsey. “We want to be able to serve every grade level at every school in Henderson.” Currently, Chelsey and Junior Achievement are searching for volunteers to fill these roles so more students and classes can be involved. There are not enough mentors at this time to accomplish this goal, although Chelsey sees a bright future for Junior Achievement and believes that these programs will grow much further. There are nine classrooms open in Henderson that are in need of volunteers. High school juniors and seniors are welcome to volunteer for these opportunities and will be working with kindergarten classes. 

The “Miss Business” Event 

One recent event that Junior Achievement held was the “Miss Business” program. During this event, students were paired with a mentor that had a job that the girls were interested in that they selected via a survey. Once paired, students were able to ask questions about their selected job and learned about what the job is like, what job applications entail, interview skills, work attire, identifying skills and positive qualities, and social media presence and etiquette. There were several activities that students could participate in and there were also Virtual Reality (VR) headsets that allowed the girls to try out whichever job they were interested in. Modules for the headsets included Distribution Line Worker, Transmission Line Worker, Broadband Tower Construction, Electrician, Solar Technician, Broadband Utility Construction, Registered Nurse, Surgical Technologist, Emergency Medical Technician, Network Technician, Semiconductor Manufacturing Technician, and Welder. There are several new modules being added to the roster for the VR headsets, as well, including Carpenter, Construction Laborer, Pharmacy Technician, Robotics Specialist, Medical Assistant, and more. This was the pilot year for this program and Chelsey is hoping to spread it to other counties and also continue it for the upcoming years. Chelsey is also hopeful that more events will be coming up this year and in the upcoming school year. 

Becoming a JA Volunteer

If you are interested in getting involved with Junior Achievement as a student or community member who wants to spread information on your career, please contact Chelsey Chaney at 270-314-5287 or [email protected]. She stated that calls, texts, and emails are welcome. If interested people are not comfortable going into classrooms, there are ways to assist with setup for events. Chelsey wants to emphasize that all volunteers will receive training before they go into a classroom, so all volunteers are well prepared. For more information, the Junior Achievement website can be viewed at westky.ja.org. Thank you, Chelsey, and thank you, Junior Achievement, for serving our community!