Early Years: From 1961 to 1982 all JA programs were after school programs using the “JA Company Program”. Student numbers remained fairly constant during this period of time.

Middle Years: In 1983, JA introducedd the first “in-class” programs with “Project Business”. The numbers began to increase and we began to expand the number of schools involved. Gradually the after school program faded and was eliminated in 1990.

York Strategy Years: In the late 1990’s we launched the York Area strategic plan. This plan called for focusing on 14 school districts in York County. This resulted in an explosion of student growth.

Exchange City/BizTown Years: In 2002 we opened Exchange City. We were the sixth area in the country to open a site. Exchange City was converted to JA BizTown in 2006. Student numbers peaked at 33,000 in 2004.

Return to High School Years: In 2008 we launched JA Finance Park and began our return to high school. We added a JA Sympoisium for young women and then in 2012 our STEM Summit. Goal for 2013 is to excede 40,000 students for the first time!

The rapid growth however has come in the past decade. In 1991, we were reaching slightly under 10,000 students. By 2001 we increased to 20,000 students and to 30,000 by 2004.

This past year, over 33,500 students received a JA experience in the classroom, in addition to 5,000 students who came through JA BizTown®, for a total of over 38,000 students. Through the outstanding support of our community, we reached over 38,000 students. While this is a decline from our highest year however, this is significantly higher than we had originally budgeted based on the economic forecast.