JA New York from Civic Corps Member, Lynnette Dent

Author: Stephanie Zlotnick
Corporate Responsibility
Published: Friday, 25 Jan 2019

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We asked Lynnette to share her favorite parts about working the JA New York so far. Here's what she told us:

I have been working at Junior Achievement of New York for four months as part of the NYC Civic Corps Program. I am a program associate and I assist the program team by coordinating volunteers at events at schools throughout the city.

One major Junior Achievement program is JA Finance Park, a capstone project for students in grades seven through twelve. The program is for students to learn the skills to create and manage a monthly budget. They are randomly given an adult profile with a job and family, and they have to pay all their expenses within one month. Our volunteers act as financial advisors for the students so they can make the best decisions for their futures. I recently assisted at JA Finance Park for a day, and it was really rewarding to watch the students make proper decisions on a micro level. This can be directly translated into their daily lives. It was an amazing experience to see volunteers use their life experiences to educate young minds about creating futures of financial freedom.

The volunteers that I meet through this program are very helpful and they come in to teach kids who they have never met. They do not have any experience teaching, but they come and inspire students for five hours by sharing how they advanced in their careers.

When I walk into the Park or a classroom during a program event, I like that I see everyone smiling and laughing. The students always seem so happy to engage in this new experience since it is something different for them to do in school. The children always make me so proud because I get to learn from them as well.

Since I have been working for Junior Achievement of New York, I have learned valuable skills and have gained beneficial knowledge about working at a non-profit. It has been such a great learning experience for me. Junior Achievement helps many students across the city and I hope that it continues to prosper as an organization for years to come.