Junior Achievement of Lehigh Valley was founded in 1955 and Junior Achievement of Berks County in 1969. In the 70’s and 80’s JA was an after-school club reaching hundreds of local students. Over the last three decades the organization has changed a great deal. Today, programs span grades K-12, with age-appropriate curricula designed to motivate young people to value, understand and want to actively participate in citizenship in a free enterprise economy. The programs are designed to teach elementary students about their roles as individuals, workers and consumers and to prepare middle, grade and high school students for key economic and workforce issues they will face. JA Programs correlate with the Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE) curriculum requirements. JA’s brand of economic education enables children to maximize their abilities in a way that brightens their future and equips them for a successful career. JA accomplishes this through the creation of educational partnerships with business people that serve as role models, connecting the classroom and the workplace. Junior Achievement Worldwide proudly announced on October 20th that during the 2006/2007 fiscal year student participation grew by 12% to 8,358,087. That’s an increase of nearly 900,000 students and marks the first time in our organization’s 88 year history that we served over 8 million young people. More importantly, this growth occurred as we placed increased emphasis on the quality of our programs and the integrity of student participation reporting processes. This tremendous impact on students is only possible through the dedicated and tireless efforts of Staff, Boards, Volunteers and Educators around the globe, as well as the financial supporters who invest in our mission. Junior Achievement of Greater Reading and Lehigh Valley has experienced growth on a consecutive basis over the last ten years, from 1996 to 2006, JA has realized an 11.5% increase in students reached. The goal for the current 2007-2008 school year is to reach 13,000 students by implementing programs in over 500 classrooms in 20 school districts throughout Berks, Lehigh and Northampton Counties. JA is one of a few national non-profits to use independent, third party evaluators to gauge the impact of its programs. Since 1993, the Worldwide Institute for Research and Evaluation (WIRE) has conducted studies on JA's impact. Findings prove that JA has a positive impact in a number of critical areas. In studies of Junior Achievement's K-12 programs by external evaluators, JA students demonstrate a significant understanding of economics and business knowledge-particularly those exposed to programs at consecutive grade levels. Educators value JA programs. Teachers have high praise for the program. They rate it 9.4 on a 10-point scale. Ninety-nine percent also say their students enjoy it. Teachers credit volunteers as a major factor in the impact of the programs' curriculum, saying that they bring an outside business perspective into the classroom and serve as positive role models for students. JA's unique approach integrates program materials, training and support. JA is the successful bridge between education and business.