BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
When Don Inouye was attending elementary school in the Niagara Falls region back in the 1980s, he participated in a course in his classroom put on by an organization called Junior Achievement.
 |
Don Inouye, president and CEO of Futures North, and Gale Carey, president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Central Ontario, were both speakers at a conference at Tom Davies Square. |
Junior Achievement is an international charitable organization that trains volunteers to go into schools and teach business courses.
Inouye continued to be involved in Junior Achievement throughout his youth, and became a board member as a young man. When he moved to Sudbury about 18 months ago, he was shocked to find there were no Junior Achievement programs in this area.
He set up a branch in time for the 2005-2006 school year, which he has called Futures North.
The organization?s courses, which cover topics like banking and starting a business, usually last about eight school hours over several weeks, and are provided free of charge.
Inouye hopes to bring business courses to 100 local classrooms by the end of this school year.
?This program is needed because kids these days don?t get the support they need. We need to establish role modelling, and we need to establish priorities and goals. We need to teach kids about the value of reaching for their dreams and goals,? he says.
Futures North is looking for local volunteers to teach courses to young people, says Inouye, who launched the program at Tom Davies Square Wednesday. Volunteers are typically from a business background, and are expected to take training courses before going into the classroom.
The courses are offered from children in kindergarten to Grade 12.
For example, children in Grades 7 and 8 are taught a course called JA Dollars with $ense, which encourages students to develop the financial literacy necessary to make informed decisions about their future.
Grade 9 and 10 students are taught a course called Banks in Action, which teaches them the fundamentals of borrowing money and interest rates.
Junior Achievement has been in Canada for over 50 years, and reaches 6.5 million students worldwide, says Gale Carey, president and CEO of Junior Achievement in Central Ontario.
It?s great that children in the Sudbury area will now have access to its services through Inouye?s branch, she says.
MP Diane Marleau, who attended the launch, wishes her own children could have had access to the program.
?It?s fine to see their teachers and parents, but to get somebody totally from the outside who is successful has such a tremendous impact on their lives. Oftentimes that is a pivotal moment in their future,? she says.
For more information about Futures North, phone 671-8058.
