CONWAY — Volunteers from Southwestern Energy will be in the classrooms at Conway High School West on Saturday, and on Saturday, April 16; and at Conway High School East on Wednesdays: April 27, May 4, May 1l, May 18 and May 25, teaching students about financial literacy through a partnership with Junior Achievement of Arkansas.
Rich Plageman, chairman of Junior Achievement of Arkansas’ North Central Region Board of Directors and general manager of Southwestern Energy, will teach the “JA Success Skills” curriculum at Conway High School West. This curriculum challenges students with engaging activities to help them learn the importance of personal appearance, professional demeanor, punctuality and written and oral communications. Additional volunteers will teach the “JA Personal Finance” curriculum at Conway High School East that explains the importance of planning, goal-setting and thoughtful decision-making within the context of personal financial decisions.
“Our collaboration with Junior Achievement of Arkansas has proved to be a huge success, and we enjoy interacting with students to discuss important decision-making skills that will influence their career and life choices,” Plageman said in a recent television interview. “Knowing [that we] are actually connecting their school work with real-life business really makes [us] feel good.”
Junior Achievement of Arkansas is a nonprofit organization that works to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve their quality of life. Community volunteers teach JA curricula in local schools to help ensure that students have a fundamental understanding of the free-enterprise system.
“JA’s unique approach allows volunteers from the business community to teach curricula while sharing their life and career experiences with students,” said Paige Cox, president of Junior Achievement of Arkansas. “These volunteers share with students key concepts about work-force readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy to inspire and empower them toward their own future economic success.”