Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley has named Kent State University at Trumbull its 2018 Volunteer Organization of the Year.
Dan Palmer, Ph.D., assistant dean of academic affairs and Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley board member, accepted the award at Junior Achievement's annual recognition breakfast.
“This is a rewarding partnership,” Dr. Palmer says. “We enjoy working with the students to teach them skills that will hopefully help them make connections between what they learn in the classroom and life skills they will need to know to prosper.”
Last December, Kent State Trumbull donated space and staff for more than 258 seventh-grade students to participate in JA Inspire, a daylong event featuring three breakout sessions on building a personal brand, career planning and getting and keeping a job.
This spring, faculty and staff participated in JA for a Day, facilitating classes on financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship for seventh- and eighth-grade students from Girard Junior/High School.
“Our relationship with Kent State Trumbull has really grown over the last few years,” says Michele Merkel, president of Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley. “We have even more planned for the rest of 2018 and in 2019.”
Besides hosting JA Inspire and participating in another JA in a Day, Kent State Trumbull will host the JA Innovation Challenge on Friday, Dec. 14. The daylong event immerses middle school students in the world of business by challenging them to develop a proposal for a new type of pizza for a local franchise, Pizza Joe's, to target a market of their peers.