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History of JA South
Central PA:
The first full scale organizational meeting was held
in June 1961.
Henry D. Schmidt was elected Chairman of the Board
and Loren Shinneman became the first President of
the local Chapter.
It took four months
to get organized, but by October of 1961, 325
students from 6 local high schools were able to meet
and form the first JA companies.
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The first JA evening company in York was
JABCO Specialties. The company was sponsored
by P.H. Glatfelter. Pictured are the Board
of Directors of JABCO Specialties 1962-1963.
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Originally, JA was an
after-school program designed to teach young adults
how businesses are organized and operated. By
providing students with positive role models and
hands-on experience in running their own small
businesses, JA volunteers helped prepare young
people for successful careers.
The after-school
program typically provided training for students to
build a product and sell it in the community.
This exposure to business gave a small number of
students a wonderful exposure to the free enterprise
system.
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Students of evening companies were involved
in all aspects of creating, manufacturing
and selling a product. Here students of one
of the first JA companies work with power
equipment to produce their product 1962
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Students had the opportunity to experience
first hand the real world of work and of
careers. Here at the JA Bank, a
student takes a deposit.
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Evening company students had JA days at the
York Mall. The mall would be full of
JA company stores selling their unique
products.
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Beginning in 1983, JA
shifted its focus from after-school programs to
in-school programs, and embarked on an ambitious
plan to dramatically expand the scope and variety of
programs offered. New educational materials were
developed for grade levels K-12, and JA programs
were made available to all students as part of their
regular daily classroom curriculum.
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Project Business was the first "in class"
program offered by JA. The
number of students reached began to
dramatically increase as more volunteers
began to participate.
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Highlights on
recent history:
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Board of Directors
requests National Office to expand local
chartered area to include all of York,
Cumberland, Adams, Dauphin and Perry counties in
1984.
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Name
officially changes from JA of York County to
South Central Pennsylvania in 1985.
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By
1986, more than 3,000 local students experience
JA of South Central PA programs.
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In
the early 1990s, JA expands into local
elementary programs.
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By
1994 JA reaches more than 6,000 local students.
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School year 2000-01, JA reaches a new record,
19,000 local students.
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In
2000 our JA office receives two national awards:
Golden Summit and Peak Performance Team.
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In
2001 our JA office receives the Platinum Summit
Award, second consecutive Peak Performance Team
Award and achieves national accreditation as a
top office.
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In January 2002, JA signed
the lease for its new headquarters at 610 S.
George Street and February 2002 saw the
beginning of renovations and construction of new
office space, conference and training space, and
Exchange City®.
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During the summer, JA received the Peak
Performance Award for the third consecutive
year.
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In September 2002,
JA was honored with the Platinum Summit Award.
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In
Spring 2004, board member Thomas Russell was
honored with the Gold Leadership Award.
Today,
JA is a dynamic, growing organization with more than
1,200 classroom volunteers and hundreds of corporate and individual
sponsors.
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