Junior Achievement takes next step with development of ‘JA Campus’
MICHAEL STAPLES, THE DAILY GLEANER, NOVEMBER 24th, 2020
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced Junior Achievement (JA) New Brunswick to take a page out of its student handbook and become more inventive.
Officials with the organization have responded by creating JA Campus, an online entrepreneurial learning tool.
“It’s basically a campus that’s out there – like any other e-learning tool,” Connie Woodside, President and CEO of Junior Achievement New Brunswick, said. “It’s good for the students, it’s good for the parents and the schools that we’re giving them an alternate resource.”
On Tuesday, the group that helps young people prepare for life in the global economy, partnered with the Fredericton Christian Academy, through its newly developed digital online campus, to provide its enrichment programs to the entire student body from grades three to 12.
“FCA is the first school to partner with Junior Achievement to adopt such an approach during the pandemic and we are very excited to be working with them,” Woodside said. “Our goal is to have even more schools and students enrol on the campus to explore some fun, interactive and enriching learning.”
More than 200 FCA students took part in a JA program on Tuesday, Woodside said.
The learning tool offers all schools, students, parents and community groups throughout the province, a suite of 15 online, digital programs, designed to fit current curriculum outcomes, Woodside said.
“Teachers, students and parents can visit the JA Campus at www.jacampus.org to open up a virtual world of learning being offered completely free of charge,” Woodside said. “These online, digital programs are excellent resources for the home learning environment as well as the classroom setting.”
Woodside said prior to COVID-19, JA was a traditional deliverer of curriculum, taking packages of material into the classroom with a business mentor.
“We had to do a quick shift and upload everything to get it from the paper into a digital format,” Woodside said. “We have taken all the traditional material that people have grown to know and love. It has also given us the chance to almost double our suite of entrepreneurship programs that can be directed at the high school level to give them more than just a one visit to JA, which they used to do.”
The campus, brought online in June, had been on the JA backburner as part of a five to seven-year plan.
“But the pandemic caused us to reach full throttle and get it up and running,” Woodside said. “We kicked the training wheels off in September and it’s been a brand new entity. We have the potential right now to reach more students. We couldn’t always get to the most rural areas of the province. Now, we can be in very remote places.”