Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain (JA) is proud to name Beth King as the 2024 JA Volunteer of the Year. Beth has been volunteering with JA since 2007 and has taught JA programming to more than 30 classes, reaching almost 800 students across Metro Denver.
Born and raised in Littleton, Beth attended Columbine High School and then spent 32 years at Lockheed Martin in Engineering and Business Development. Lockheed Martin participated in the Corporate Stock Market Challenge and JA Bowl-A-Thon, which is how Beth originally became involved with the organization. From there, she had the itch to start volunteering.
“After we started to participate in the events and I met JA staff, I started volunteering in my best friend’s second-grade class,” said Beth. “I did that for 15 years, and I fell in love with the mission, the messaging, and the programs.”
Following that experience, Beth volunteered in an at-risk high school class for a year-and-a-half and then came to volunteer at Robert & Judi Newman JA Finance Park, presented by Transamerica. It was there she found joy in working with middle and high schoolers.
“The program is structured so well to where they are in their lives and what their focus is,” said Beth. “We had a group that was a week away from graduating high school, you would think they would be over school at that point, but I had some of the best conversations with them.”
Beth grew up without JA programming when she was in school. Being a volunteer has allowed her to realize not only the impact the organization has on the students it reaches, but also volunteers, like herself.
“The interaction between the adults and students invigorates me and gives me so much energy. Watching young people be so engaged is so rewarding. They blow me away with how well they spoke and how they had their futures planned.”
Bringing her own real-world experiences to the students she’s reaching is one of Beth’s favorite parts of volunteering. Whether it’s sharing stories of her selling rockets in Paris to encouraging women to become engineers, Beth brings the programs to life.
“Whenever I am volunteering at JA Finance Park, I always do childcare,” said Beth. “I was a young mother working full-time with a husband working full-time, and my kids were in childcare from the time they were six weeks old. I can go in and tell these kids, ‘This is real,’ and when you share your personal stories with them, the students really feed off that.”
Perhaps Beth’s favorite volunteering experience will be during this upcoming school year.
“I get to teach in my granddaughter’s class next year. I’m very much looking forward to that.”
