JA launched its JA High School Leaders Program with University Scools in Greeley last fall. The program engages high school students as JA volunteers who deliver JA curriculum while serving as role models to K-3 students. JA worked with students from University High School’s Wealth Management class.

“JA made this experience amazing for my students,” said University High School Teacher Jessie Kern. “JA provided the resources, tools and encouragement that my students needed in order to successfully share the knowledge they had gained in class with the elementary students in our building. My students learned so much more than just my class content could have taught them. They also built relationships with the younger students that are still evident in the hallways at our school.”

Kenzie Willoughby, a Wealth Management student who taught the JA curriculum said, “I loved getting to work with younger kids and see them really engage in what we were teaching them.”

The High School Leaders Program not only benefited the older students. According to Jillian Patterson, one of the first grade teachers who invited high school students into her classroom, said, “It was great to see the high school be successful in an area that was unfamiliar to them.  It was equally great to see how engaged the first graders were and how excited they were to connect with the high school students!”

With the successful launch of the program, JA’s Northern Colorado team is eager to expand the program throughout 2018.

High school students who volunteer for JA have the opportunity to develop and refine their presentation and public speaking skills, explore teaching as a possible career, and build their resumes for post-secondary education and scholarship applications.  Interested teachers should contact Kelsey Ransom at kransom@jacolorado.org for more information.