Author: Makenzie Morris
Community Involvement
Published:
Thursday, 01 Jan 2026
Sharing
The Power of Mentorship: My Journey with JA Titan
Don Schmidgall, Community Volunteer
Junior Achievement first approached our Business Education teacher, Ms. Skidmore, about participating in the JA Titan competition. My name was mentioned as a possible mentor – and that began my introduction to Junior Achievement and JA Titan. And what a ride it has been!
We started with four students and one team and experienced some early success. It didn’t take long for interest to grow. Today, we routinely have three to four teams and multiple mentors participating. Not only do we enjoy competing with other school districts, but we also have some pretty lively competitions among our own teams. And that’s good. As the adage says, “iron sharpens iron.”
JA Titan has been a valuable learning experience for our students. The simulation moves them beyond theory and into real decision-making. They develop a strategy, analyze data, and see firsthand how their choices affect outcomes. No two competitions are ever the same. Students learn to think on their feet and adapt to changing conditions.
Additionally, participating in JA Titan helps prepare students for life beyond school. They learn to interpret data, weigh options, and collaborate with their teammates. This experience also gives them exposure to the business world. I’ve had students share that their involvement in JA Titan influenced their decision to pursue further education and careers in business.
Over the past 16 years, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed mentoring. Personally, it’s rewarding to build relationships with young men and women and watch them succeed and grow. If you’re considering getting involved, I would simply say this: mentoring is a meaningful investment in the next generation. The impact is lasting – for the students and for you as well!
From JA BizTown to Business Owner: The Lasting Impact of Junior Achievement
Connor Bedell, Windy City Performance Posture
JA started for me in elementary school, when I was going to McKinley Elementary in Davenport, Iowa. We started in kindergarten and then went up through fifth grade and junior high. JA, for me, was this time to be able to think about how to solve problems differently. JA was teaching you skills that was more of, how do we think outside of the box, of what this situation might need, or what are some problems or things that we may not have thought about, that we might encounter when talking about business or trying to come up with solutions, and it forced you to think in ways that you weren't necessarily taught to think through doing just your normal schoolwork. So that's what I really enjoyed about it when it first started.
As far as the annual report goes, I did not remember being in that until my mom [Honey] sent me the photo. She was like, hey, look, you were in this. I was like, I don't remember being in that. JA has been something that she's tapped into, I think, for different reasons, of trying to push leadership within youth as well as a lot of her friends are involved in entrepreneurship or other social engagements that JA really does a great job of promoting. So I think for her, it was just, how do we find a way to be able to push these kids to think differently and want to go do something that they may not have thought would have been possible for them.
“JA BizTown has been a frequent topic of conversation at the dinner table since the first day of school, and yesterday lied up to all the expectations. My son, Connor, told me at bedtime last night that it was one of the best days of his life and wondered if he could live there.” – Honey Bedell
One of the biggest things that I think you learned through JA, especially group projects in general, is just how to communicate with people, and especially people of different walks of life who are in the same areas that you are. You get to sit down and attack a common goal or problem and have to communicate with different types of people how you see the problem is different than everybody else that you're working with, but you're all working towards one common goal.
I think there's been a growing consensus of what kids need to be learning within school. And we always talk about how kids need to be taught practical life skills. Well, this is literally the practical life skill that every kid is clamoring to want to learn. How do I do my taxes? How do I balance a checkbook? How do I manage my money? Well, these are all skills that you are learning within JA. I think as we move into a different changing of jobs and how people go into the workforce, and what's required of them is this is something that is going to give you a lot of control over what the opportunities are for you. If you can learn how to build a business and learn to want to do something like this there's a lot of avenues that open for you.
I’m an entrepreneur, and I probably do something that 99.9% of the people have never heard. I do something called posture therapy, which is essentially like functional movement therapy, to try to realign the body. And I primarily work with baseball players. So growing up baseball was my big thing of what I like to do. And since getting injured I've wanted to be able to help other people avoid the situations that I got into. So I've learned about this different rehab method to help people, and that's what I've started to do. And I really love it.
The biggest thing I would say to the youth audience would be as you're going through and you're doing these different exercises or thought activities, is they might feel pointless while you're doing them, but they're going to teach you how to attack problems differently, and they're going to force you to think of different ways to do things, or different potential solutions that are out there; and getting frustrated with these types of exercises is something to expect, and it's something that you have to go through to be able to get to the other side of it to figure out how to attack those problems better. So JA is one of those things that it doesn't come inherently easy, because it's forcing you to do things that you’re not good at, and to get better at them, you actually have to do the thing. So go through these exercises, take them seriously, because they're going to force you to think differently and make you a much smarter person for it.
Building Connections Beyond the Curriculum
Chris Ford, President & CEO of River Bend Food Bank
When I first agreed to teach a Junior Achievement class, I thought I was doing something for them—a small way to give back, share a little real‑world knowledge, and hopefully make economics and business feel a bit more approachable. What I didn’t realize was just how much the experience would end up giving me in return.
On that first day, I walked into the classroom with a mix of excitement and uncertainty. The students weren’t sure what to make of me either. There’s always a warm‑up period—those first few minutes of polite smiles, curious glances, and the unspoken question hanging in the air: Who is this person, and what is he doing here? But as with most meaningful relationships, it didn’t take long for the walls to come down.
By my second or third visit, everything felt different. The energy changed. The kids recognized me as soon as I walked in, and their faces lit up. We were genuinely happy to see each other. They knew I was someone who showed up, who cared, and who brought real stories from the real world.
At the time, I was working for Pepsi, and that turned out to be an unexpected advantage. Suddenly, business concepts weren’t abstract; they were connected to products they saw every day. I could talk about supply chains and marketing using examples they recognized from store shelves or the commercials they’d grown up with. Sharing stories from the beverage world made the lessons come alive. The students leaned in, asked questions, and connected the dots between classroom learning and life outside those walls.
A huge part of the experience was made easier by JA’s curriculum. Everything was well-organized, thoughtfully structured, and simple to follow. The preparation wasn’t overwhelming; it felt purposeful. Instead of spending hours figuring out what or how to teach, I could focus on connecting with the students—on making the lessons meaningful.
And somewhere along the way, something unexpected happened: I realized I was getting more out of the experience than I ever anticipated. There’s a deep, unique fulfillment that comes from seeing a student grasp a concept because you explained it. There’s satisfaction in watching them light up when they understand how the world works a little better than they did before. And there’s something incredibly grounding about stepping away from the daily grind to invest in the next generation.
Teaching that JA class didn’t just make an impact on the students; it made an impact on me. It reminded me why mentorship matters, why investing in young people is so important, and why sometimes the most meaningful rewards come from showing up, sharing what you know, and being open to what you might learn in return.
A Love Story Rooted in Junior Achievement
Mike & Stasia Brannon, Brannon Monument Co.
Junior Achievement has always focused on teaching the next generation about fiscal literacy and responsibility, market-based economics, and entrepreneurship. When we were in high school, the core JA experience was the evening program. It was there that we worked alongside students from all over the tri-state area, learning the basics of setting up real, working businesses.
I (Stasia) worked in companies that actually made and sold products—like a hanger that still hangs in my dad’s closet today. Mike was involved in the accounting and banking companies that supported those JA production businesses.
It was through the evening program, working with company sponsors and their employee mentors, that we truly realized the importance of community service. While we have always believed it’s important to be involved in the communities where we live and work, what we’ve received from that involvement has come back to us tenfold.
In business, you quickly learn that things often come full circle. Being honored as Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Laureates has been especially meaningful to our family. Recently, our oldest daughter, Emily, began teaching basic economics in the JA Our Nation program.
The first lessons—and recognition—of our business knowledge began when we were young people in Junior Achievement.
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