Junior Achievement and Bank of America – Promoting Financial Capability through Partnership
Author: Ed Grocholski
Corporate Responsibility
Published:
Monday, 26 Apr 2021
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Image caption: image of bank of america employee volunteering for junior achievement
For more than a decade, Bank of America and Junior Achievement have partnered in many local markets to give young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices. Beginning in 2020, Bank of America and Junior Achievement launched an innovative national grant initiative to increase employee volunteer engagement while impacting high school students with financial literacy and/or work readiness programming. Bank of America’s support allowed 12 JA area markets to run programming Title 1 high schools, assuring that JA programs are reaching underserved communities. As part of this effort, Junior Achievement was able to supplement their award-winning curriculum by sharing Bank of America’s Better Money Habits® resources with their students.
Nafeesah’s Story of Impact
Nafeesah Williams is a Commercial Support Specialist with Bank of America in Fresno, California. She has been involved with Junior Achievement of Northern California for nearly eight years and in 2020 was recognized as their 2020 Volunteer of the Year.
Nafeesah first became involved with JA as an employee volunteer at Bank of America when she was invited by a colleague to join their volunteer efforts at a local elementary school.
“I was so terrified at first,” says Nafeesah. “But I’m so glad I did. Without seeing for myself, there’s just no way I would have known that in a single day I can impact the lives of 20 or more kids.”
Nafeesah believes that Junior Achievement is making a significant impact on our youth, by helping them understand the basics of financial literacy at an early age. Through her volunteering experience, Nafeesah says that JA has an impact on students’ lives that you can see immediately.
“There’s no greater feeling than seeing their smiling faces when you leave that classroom,” Nafeesah adds.
Junior Achievement ensures that underserved communities are reached first and that kids who may not have a positive role model can experience them through JA’s programs.
“It teaches them early on that they can accomplish anything that they put their minds to and that they work hard for,” concludes Nafeesah. “If you haven’t ever volunteered for JA, do it. You won’t regret it.”
Providing grants in key markets allowed Junior Achievement and Bank of America to create a deeper engagement to support Low to Moderate Income (LMI) communities in their footprint.
In addition, Bank of America included support for 3DE programming in two JA markets. 3DE functions as a school within an actual high school, and re-engineers high school education to be more relevant, experiential, and authentically connected to the complexities of the real world to more fully prepare today's students for the demands of tomorrow's economy.
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