What better way to teach kids how to view the world of work, free enterprise, and their possibilities for success than through experiential learning? Junior Achievement of South Florida, established in 1959, is an advocate for this type of approach. With programs that span from kindergarten to grade 12, JA has developed age-appropriate curricula designed to teach students about their roles as individuals, workers, and consumers to prepare them for key economic and workforce issues they will face.

To further develop these ideals, JA has created the JA Finance Park, which provides students with the opportunity to acquire a foundation for making intelligent, lifelong, personal financial decisions through hands-on, realistic site-based experiences. For one regular school day, middle school students are able to apply their acquired knowledge to a life-like business environment where they are faced with many of the decisions their parents deal with on a daily basis. Upon arrival to the JA Finance Park, students are issued with a real-life situation including an annual salary and fictitious family to support on their personal budget. The students are then introduced to different businesses incorporating areas such as home improvement, banking, clothing, food, and schooling where they must make financial decisions regarding their purchases.

To enable the students to achieve this experiential learning, Advanced Roofing and Advanced Green Technologies are proud to announce our sponsorship of the home improvement room at the JA Finance Park. Designed with renewable energy in mind and the ability to teach students about the importance of environmental responsibility, the ARI/AGT store front includes all of our offered products along with our interactive solar monitoring system and solar education center. The decision to sponsor JA enables us to support our local community while providing education on the need for renewable energy. In addition to sponsoring the JA Finance Park home improvement room, ARI/AGT plan to donate a FlexLight photovoltaic system to power the building.

On Oct 2nd, The Junior Achievement held its open house and ribbon cutting for the World Center. In response to an appreciation award for donation of the room, Rob Kornahrens announced “It is very exciting to be a part of this hands on experience we are providing to the youth of South Florida”. The World Center will see many different kids every day and starting them out thinking green and bringing that home and in the future will make the world a better place.