Messages Pour in from Around the World for JA’s 100th Birthday
December 2, 2019
On December 1, 2019, people around the world helped celebrate JA’s rich history of building the skill sets and changing the mindsets of millions of young people around the world.
Board members; alumni; volunteers; partners; supporters; students; staff members from JA Worldwide, regional operating centers, and local offices; and even national landmarks helped JA celebrate our official 100th birthday.
JA, first known as Junior Achievement—and now also known around the world as Young Enterprise, INJAZ, and dozens of other locally recognized names—was formed on December 1, 2019 by business leaders Horace Moses, founder of Strathmore Paper Company, and Theodore Vail, President of AT&T, who teamed up with U.S. Senator Murray Crane in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA.
JA USA CEO Jack Kosakowski, who recently celebrated 45 years of service with the organization, wrote, “The vision of JA was a response to the mass migration of farm families from rural America into booming U.S. cities in the wake of industrialization. The program was aimed at giving young people the skills they would eventually need to be successful adults in the country’s growing urban centers.” Since then, JA and its alumni and students have been unstoppable.
Read more about JA’s incredible history, watch the video that JA Worldwide board member Partha Bose and his company, Oliver Wyman, created for the day (just below), and then check out some of the birthday messages JA received on December 1.
