Gulf Breeze students remain active in Junior Achievement
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Franklin Hayes/Gulf Breeze News Donald Darkin waits to be called on during a Junior Achievement volunteer session at Gulf Breeze Middle School.

As students work through their days, sometimes a break in structure is what's desperately needed to help lesson plans fully sink in. Every now and then, when the pressure of taking notes and preparing for exams disappears, students can truly relax and open their minds. For Junior Achievement (JA) volunteers, it's exactly the response they're looking for. Junior Achievement is a nationwide non-profit organization that specializes in taking volunteers from the world of business, and supplying them with the tools and resources they need to share their real-world knowledge with students of all ages. Here in Gulf Breeze, JA is active in several grade levels at Gulf Breeze Elementary, Middle and High school.

"[JA is] a lot of good people doing a lot of good things for the children of the community, and it is really inspiring," JA board member and volunteer Christy Klemm said.

JA volunteer David Langham also understands the importance of working professionals in the classroom. Langham works as a District Judge in Pensacola, and has been a volunteer with JA for nearly four years. Langham gave testimony about how giving students the same type of information in a different JA package can open the door of analytic thought for some students. In a recent session with students from a Gulf Breeze

High School senior economics class, Langham described what it feels like when the message really gets through to students.

"We were talking about gas prices and ethanol," Langham said, adding, "I asked them 'When ethanol comes on the market [and it is more cost effective], what will happen to the price of gas?'A young man who didn't seem to want to be there gave the correct answer [the price of gas will go down]. He got it! If you get one of these moments each semester, you are doing pretty well."

Volunteers like Langham and Klemm are what make JA possible. Volunteers take an hour out of their busy day to speak with students about business, economics, and culture. As Frances Yeo, Executive Director for JA of Northwest

Florida explained, Gulf Breeze is one of the very best places to recruit volunteers.

Currently, JA is a big part of JoAnn Considine's Seventh grade geography classes at Gulf Breeze Middle School.

"I have taught school for 28 years and [JA] is truly one of the best educational programs I have ever had the pleasure of integrating into my classroom," Considine said. "It's so real world. It's perfect!"

Being a not-for-profit organization, JA relies heavily on volunteers and community contributions to get their programs into schools. For more information about JA programs and fundraisers visit http://nwfl.ja.org, call them at (850) 477-1420, or visit their office at 1010 north 12th Ave., Suite 233, Pensacola.