JA alumnus Elijah Janello says he owes a big portion of his success and his current role with Land Title Guarantee Company to JA.

Prior to participating in JA, Elijah and his friends didn’t think about money or how important money would be to their future. They hadn’t even considered it.

“Going to JA Stock Market Challenge really opened my eyes to the possibilities of different avenues,” Elijah says. “The future wasn’t just going to have to be McDonald’s. It wasn’t just going to have to be working as a server in a restaurant. JA turned me onto the idea that there’s more out there, more avenues.”

“I then went to JA Finance Park and it was the first time I ever heard about credit, it was the first time I ever heard about how to prepare financially for paying for your own insurance, for your renter’s insurance, paying for gas and heating, and your own electricity, your own internet,” he says.

Elijah was planning to move out of his house and drop out of high school. Before these JA experiences, he had not considered what his life would be like after that.

“It was the first time I was scared, in a good way,” he says. “I kind of stopped and actually listened, and got past my own ego, and realized while I can’t graduate, I’ve got to get my GED. So I forked over the cash, I studied and I got my GED. I wouldn’t have been able to end up working where I do now if it weren’t for JA. JA talked about your future and how hard it was going to be to do these things without considering the repercussions.”

Elijah now actively volunteers at JA Finance Park.

“It was a lot of hard work but JA was the reason I even had a direction to go in. It’s life changing.”

Learn more about JA Finance Park, presented by Transamerica