We have partnered with the Council for Economic Education (CEE) to organize student forums for semifinalists and other select participants of the National Personal Finance Challenge and National Economics Challenge. 20+ JEC members collaborated to develop marketing tools, find guest speakers, and direct engaging breakout room activities. The three forums are outlined below:
Regional Student Forum (May 2nd, 2021): Amelia O’Rourke Owens, Associate Director at America Saves; Willene Johnson, Former Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Alden Richards, Lecturer at Brown and Yale University
National Economics Challenge Student Forum (May 21st, 2021): Samantha Kappagoda, Chief Economist and Co-Founder of Risk Economics; Larry Kantor, Operating Partner at Atlas Merchant Capital; Barry Haimes, Managing Partner at Sage Asset Management; Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics
National Personal Finance Challenge Student Forum (May 27th, 2021): Renee M. Greene, Vice President at Goldman Sachs; Helena Darling, Associate Vice President at Bessemer Trust; Michael Nemecek, Director at Voya Financial
High Returns is our primary community outreach initiative, centered around fostering financial literacy education at an early age. During this program, students will have the opportunity to explore their skills, interests, values, and the world of work to make informed education, career, and life decisions. This program was developed with a primary emphasis on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and work readiness, while also providing a strong secondary emphasis on mathematics, reading, and writing skills. Upon completion of our program, students will have learned fundamental business and economic concepts, explored career interests and opportunities, and developed work-readiness skills.
The leaders of this program are Junior Economic Club members who are passionate about being mentors for younger Chicago students. These members have gone through financial literacy training and are more than qualified to be educating Chicago middle schoolers about these important topics. With High Returns, four to five JEC members lead a series of 45-minute Zoom workshops on finance for 7th and 8th graders at various local, underserved elementary schools. The workshops are exciting, interactive, and engaging, while simultaneously teaching students about important topics and life skills such as the concept of credit and identifying the connection between goal setting, personal finance, education, and career choices. You can view a brief overview of the lessons here.
Studies have shown that in-school teaching of financial literacy from a young age has a significant impact on a student’s financial success and competency as an adult. However, financial literacy is rarely taught in elementary schools or and some high schools throughout the nation. It is also proven that low-income and minority students are more likely to be less financially literate in their adulthood. These are the problems that the Junior Economic Club is trying to solve with the High Returns initiative.
We are presenting a free Virtual Accelerator program for aspiring high school entrepreneurs in Chicago. The first session is open to anyone who is interested in learning the basics of building a business. Actively engaged students from the first session will be given preference when applying for the second session, a more intensive Accelerator offering one on one mentorship. Students will learn how to come up with an idea, perform customer research, pitch, and sell a product. All material taught is from JEC Alumni Alan Phung’s four years of experience working at startup companies and in accelerators. To view more information about the program, please view this document.
We have partnered with Chicago Public Schools to develop websites for 11 under-resourced schools. Throughout the school year, JEC members worked within teams and with the administrations of each respective school to determine their priorities and information distribution needs. Members then created websites tailored to each school, funded by the Chicago Public Schools Children First Fund. To ensure the sustainability of the websites, JEC members provided training to each school’s website manager and also launched computer science clubs so current students could learn to maintain and further develop the websites.
Located within the 160,000 square feet B2B creative industry ecosystem of Fort Knox Studios, 2112 is Chicago’s first incubator focused on the development of entrepreneurs and disruption in music, film/video, and creative technology.
We have partnered with 2112 to launch various workshops led by prominent Chicago entrepreneurs in brainstorming, marketing, leadership, and app/website development.
In addition to learning how to start your own business, 2112 grants JEC members full access to all services and networks at 2112 as a member, including mentorship from Chicago’s brightest digital designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
We are beyond excited to announce JEC NYC’s Mentorship Program, which allows members within JEC NYC to connect with each other as mentor and mentee. The goal of this program is to allow younger members to get advice from older members—this could include guidance on which classes to take in school, internship or community service opportunities, things to do in JEC NYC, networking, AP/SAT/ACT, colleges, etc.—while at the same time encourage more interaction between JEC members.
The Junior Economic Club of Atlanta has worked with Atlanta City Treasurer, Courtney Knight, and directors from Atlanta's Economic Development Authority, InvestAtlanta, to develop a platform for high school students from the metropolitan Atlanta area to gain exposure to the inner-workings of the city's economic systems as well as share their ideas for city-wide public improvements. Up to date, the council has featured the following guest speakers: Mohamed Balla (Chief Financial Officer), Dr. Tina M. Wilson (Deputy Chief Financial Officer), Youlanda C. Carr (Deputy Chief Financial Officer), Shawn Gabriel (Director of the Office of Budget & Fiscal Policy), C. Courtney Knight (Atlanta City Treasurer), Dr. Eloisa Klementich (President and CEO of InvestAtlanta, and others.
The Junior Economic Club of Atlanta has partnered with the University of North Georgia to start the UNG Nighthawks Essay Competition - an educational program that aims to encourage high school students to learn more about economics in general and macroeconomics in particular. Participants will develop research and writing skills. The University of North Georgia (UNG) will designate the competition's theme each year.
The UNG Nighthawks Essay Competition is open to all eligible students and teachers without regard to ethnicity, gender, religion (creed), age, disability, or any other discriminatory reason. Participating high schools must be located in the Atlanta metropolitan area or the Northeast Georgia region. See the JEC Atlanta website for more registration details!
JEC Atlanta works with middle schools across the metro Atlanta area to lead short, interactive lessons and activities for students in grades 6-8. The program seeks to introduce younger students to the world of economics: an area that is often made out to be rather drab in schools. The Outreach Program places an emphasis on exposing students to several different fields of study within economics, from financial economics to environmental economics and everything in between. JEC Atlanta wants students to know that no matter their interests, there's a way for them to make a meaningful impact through economics.
We have worked directly with Chicago City Treasurer Kurt Summers and his office to hold the Youth Council for Economic Development, a forum for communication between club members, city officials, and community leaders. Consisting of entirely JEC members, students on the Council can share their perspectives on a variety of topics and work to create solutions for issues that are important to students and the city.