Junior Achievement of San Diego had its most impactful summer yet. We had 1,134 students across the county participate in our JA BizTown and JA Finance Park Summer Camps and our newly launched summer internship program.
Over 50 volunteers supported our summer camp activities as mock job interviewers and ‘Shark Tank’ judges. Partnerships with local organizations provided additional educational enrichment activities. Illumina and their volunteers provided strawberry DNA extraction kits for JA BizTown and JA Finance Park students to conduct their own experiments and explore the field of STEM. Manpower volunteers gave a presentation to our interns on work readiness and how to be successful in the workplace.
The camp week concludes with campers participating in our simulation experiences where BizTown campers run their own businesses and Finance Park campers budget a month of adult finances.
“The experience was really fun,” said JA Finance Park camper Melody. “[I will] use this information for like dealing with my finance stuff when I’m older. I’ll be able to know how to save my money in different situations.”
This summer was the first time JA offered internship opportunities. Juniors and seniors in high school participated in a paid, 30-hour internship program sponsored by Manpower. Interns gained insight into life in the workforce and learned how to develop and promote educational youth programs.
Many of the JA Summer Camps and intern participants attended these JA programs through the Level Up San Diego program with San Diego Unified School District which enables students to participate in local summer camp programs at no cost. We are thrilled to have been able to impact so many students with the support of our partners.
To see view our upcoming programs for this fall, visit www.jasandiego.org/ja-programs.