Focus On Community: Insuring a Brighter Future at Junior Achievement with Adam Roth

Welcome to The Amber Stitt Show! On this episode, host Amber Stitt sits down with her friend and colleague Adam Roth to discuss the importance of focusing on community through involvement with nonprofits, particularly Junior Achievement (JA).

They delve into the impact of JA's programs in Title I schools and underserved communities, sharing their experiences teaching business lessons and witnessing the entrepreneurial spirit of young students.

Adam and Amber touch on their involvement with JA's Biztown program, highlighting the lasting impression it leaves on the young minds that are involved. They also explore the value of volunteerism, offering insights on different ways individuals and organizations can contribute to JA and the community at large.

Join the conversation as they delve into the significance of giving back, the joy of seeing young minds thrive, and the role of JA in shaping the future of our youth.

If you're interested in learning more about Junior Achievement and how to get involved, be sure to tune in to this insightful episode.

To watch the video podcast of this episode click here:
https://youtu.be/CHhzf6hYlxE

To learn more about Junior Achievement and how you can get involved, please visit their website at:
https://www.jaaz.org/

To connect with Adam Roth, join him on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adroth/

To stay updated on The Amber Stitt Show and discover more thought-provoking content, visit:
https://www.amberstitt.com/ 

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And remember, "Take Action Today!"

Transcript

Amber [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to The Amber Stitt Show. I am your host, Amber Stitt, and today we welcome my friend and colleague Adam Roth. Welcome, Adam.

Adam Roth [00:00:08]:
Thank you. Thank you for having me, Amber.

Amber [00:00:09]:
All right, Adam, welcome back to the show. We're going to talk about focusing on community a little bit more. Let's talk about nonprofits and focusing on community. And it's not that you have to join all kinds of nonprofits, but there are ways to be involved and do some charitable events by cross reference, seeing organizations, friendships, communities. And you and I have done a really good job of that, of seeing in financial services between NAIFA, between WIFS and then our businesses. How else can we participate, especially for the younger generation? And so let's talk about how you've been involved with Junior Achievement in Arizona. I think you've been on that board, too. And let's share how much fun we've had working with their groups in the schools.

Adam Roth [00:00:48]:
Right. And if you're not aware, Junior Achievement is a program. It's a nonprofit that really works in Title I schools, underserved communities. And we go in and we teach certain lessons. It all depends on the age. It goes from kindergarten through high school.

Amber [00:01:04]:
I didn't know this when I joined you in Tucson, for one. You go here, it's established. And I was all nervous, what are we going to talk to these kids about? And you go, "We have a curriculum. There's a whole package here. Here you go." It was really nice. It was put together well thought out.

Adam Roth [00:01:17]:
Yeah. So it's a lesson in a box. Right. Whereas I think we're starting to change how that's done because as you saw, we have paper handouts because that's how we have always done it. But as you saw, they're tied into their screen. There's a big screen in the middle of the room, and they have little tablets that they can tap into. Yeah. And the teacher's in charge of that.

Adam Roth [00:01:39]:
And I'd imagine they limit what they can and cannot do on those tabs. But we changed the curriculum a little bit to keep up with what they had, the resources that they had.

Amber [00:01:54]:
There was a flow, and there was a lot of good, dynamic business leaders in the room, even though they were 8th graders.

Adam Roth [00:02:00]:
Right. And that's the thing about Junior Achievement, is it's not just showing them the path to something maybe a little better. And when I say better, it's maybe beyond high school. It could be junior college, it could be college, or maybe some kind of trade. But you give them that sense of, "Hey, you're not alone," first of all. And two, "This is what's possible," where some certain communities where they only think, like, I'm going to work for my parent's small business, or they go to college, and it's a better resource for that business that they get that education.

Amber [00:02:36]:
Yeah, because we saw great ideas, but I could even in my mind, knowing what's out there from a national perspective with technology and friends and organizations, they had some ideas. And you and I are both like, "Oh, my gosh, but you could do x, Y and Z with this." But we don't want to overwhelm them. But giving them the confidence that their ideas are great, but to help them build off of that, there's a lot of talent, I think. If we allow them to thrive.

Adam Roth [00:03:00]:
I would say Title I schools, certain underserved communities, they're just expected to get out of high school, or actually they're expected just to go to high school. Right? In most cases. But there's a lot of talent. There's a lot of individuals in these classrooms that they're doing the bare minimum to stay with everybody else where they're on a different level. As you saw, there was maybe one or two that sat in the back of the room, just didn't engage. But once we got a little more confidence out of them, it was amazing. It was. And I was super surprised.

Adam Roth [00:03:33]:
And it's not just them coming out of like, let's say, their shell, or getting more confidence. It's their knowledge of technology, their knowledge of how to navigate technology. I myself, we didn't grow up with that.

Amber [00:03:47]:
I didn't.

Adam Roth [00:03:48]:
I didn't, you know, and I've been learning.

Amber [00:03:51]:
That's why I sought you out.

Adam Roth [00:03:52]:
Like, I need your help to learn this.

Amber [00:03:54]:
We're about the same age audience, everybody. No, but you're right. And I think sometimes with the younger generation, there's an eye roll and they're on their screens, and there's a lot of juicy entrepreneurial spirits in there.

Adam Roth [00:04:05]:
Oh, absolutely.

Amber [00:04:07]:
Let's just get them talking about it and see how they can apply it. But it was just all different thoughts of business lines in this room. And there were just some that were just blowing me away. And the one that was the most quiet, she came up to the front, and hers happened to be my favorite business logo design that we were working on with that one workshop. So the curriculum, I liked that we were able to see the fruit of the talents in the room and then just really work with that, but you didn't have to completely come in and create it from scratch. And I think that's what's important. If we are doing our work in our businesses, we can still give back.

Amber [00:04:39]:
But it's nice that everything is developed for us. And I think that's why it was important for us to add that in as a charitable leg with our WIFS focus is because of the business side of things, not so much always financial services. But why that Junior Achievement, that organization really made sense for you and I to then pull that into our agenda for the 2024 year, to spend time with them, to really focus energy there. It can be just a day, or it can be more than that.

Adam Roth [00:05:06]:
Right. And there's different programs through Junior Achievement. As you saw, we were just there for a day. There's other programs where you do a six month course, or maybe shorter, which, as you saw, a lot of those programs will go to what they call Biztown. Biztown is a facility in Tempe. Certain businesses will buy into Junior Achievement and have a storefront. And it's really interesting in that program, that six month program, they elect a mayor. So that mayor is in charge of this town.

Adam Roth [00:05:39]:
Right. That's the voice. It's kind of cool.

Amber [00:05:42]:
Most of them are ladies, FYI. Most of the girls ran the town hall.

Adam Roth [00:05:48]:
Yeah, they did. Yeah. It's just neat to see, and it teaches them how things work, how not just the business world, but, like, the real world. They have travel agencies. They have Chick-fil-A was in there.

Amber [00:06:01]:
It's a town.

Adam Roth [00:06:02]:
It's a town.

Amber [00:06:03]:
And you're telling me about this and there's a link on their website, www.jaaz.org. But until you walk in there, I wanted to sign up and hang out. Maybe they could teach me something. I'll go work over at Cox Cable and do some marketing over there at, you know, whatever. So neat. And it was like, almost beyond the adults, what they were working on.

Adam Roth [00:06:23]:
Oh, the adults were just there to kind of guide them through. The kids you know, they had their tablets. They had certain tasks that they needed to complete to run the town. It's just neat to see it working. I've seen it twice now, and the both times I've been there, I'm absolutely blown away. I'm amazed. And most of these, again, are Title I schools that are coming into Biztown, that are working Biztown, and it's a learning process. They're starting at a young age, and so when they get to high school, they know, "Hey, I want to work for Cox Cable.

Adam Roth [00:06:58]:
I want to be a manager at Chick-fil-A, I want to work for one of the travel agencies. Right? So it gives them that sense like, "Hey, there's more out there than just, 'Hey, after high school, we'll see what happens.' We don't know what's going to happen. Maybe college, maybe I get a job." But now there's a sense of, "Wow, I want to be a part of this whole business world," and then gives them a sense of direction. Right.

Adam Roth [00:07:25]:
And that's the nice thing about Junior Achievement, is we're giving...it works for all children, but a certain demographic, the path and the possibility that there's more out there than just stopping at high school level. Right?

Amber [00:07:41]:
Yeah.

Adam Roth [00:07:41]:
And that's one of the reasons why I want to get involved, because those are our future advisors, those are our future community leaders, entrepreneurs. That's the other pillar is entrepreneurship. It's job readiness, business literacy, and entrepreneurship. So, yeah, it gives them a sense of all that. Like when we went into the class, we asked them, "Hey, build your brand. What kind of business would you like to start?" And some of these businesses were like, "Wow, this could really happen."

Amber [00:08:08]:
Yeah.

Adam Roth [00:08:09]:
And you're not going to reach everybody. That's not the intent. But if you can get maybe a handful of kids coming out of a certain high school that you've taught since junior high, and they go up and they do the Junior Achievement program all the way through, 12th grade, graduate, come out, they're most likely already on track. "This is what I want to do." If it's not college, maybe they want to start a business. Right?

Amber [00:08:32]:
Like you said, trade or something else.

Adam Roth [00:08:34]:
Yeah, right. The tools that they get from Junior Achievement are so valuable to some of these individuals that I still really can't comprehend. It's just beyond me. It's bigger than me, it's bigger than the organization. And that's one of the reasons why I like about it, because I'm in doing something that's way beyond the scope of what I can do.

Amber [00:08:53]:
Well, it was because of you that I really got integrated there, and it made sense. I have a five year old, so at some point I'd like to get her situated if there's ability to. So I really appreciate you bringing that to my awareness and that we could do it together. The thing is, back to our original episode. We talked about meeting at NAIFA, and then we have WIFS, and now we have this other thing, and now we're bringing other members from WIFS and beyond into the JA events. And so for anybody that wants to be a part of this, because you're local, please reach out. We're going to go back and do a tour again and hang out. The people that manage the JA are awesome people, too, to get to know.

Amber [00:09:28]:
And if you're not able to, but you're listening and you're not in the same area, there's other locations out there, but you can always help by even going through some donations, and there's some tax credits there as well. Really important to advocate for these younger minds, but the joy I get seeing their faces, you can't beat it. It's just the coolest thing to see their minds working, and it's just like they know what they're up to, what they're doing. It was such a vibe, like, of energy. It was really neat to see it. So I can't wait to go back.

Adam Roth [00:09:56]:
Yeah, you know, and Biztown is for a day, but I think it has lasting impressions on some of these kids coming through the program that it's going to stay with them forever. And like you said, there's opportunities to volunteer. We're always looking for volunteers in the classroom. So my thing is there's three ways you can give not just the Junior Achievement, but to the community is - your time, your treasure, and your talent. If you don't have the time, that's okay. You can give treasure and you can give your ideas. I like giving all three. To me, that's my giving back, is my time, my talent, my treasure.

Adam Roth [00:10:31]:
So those organizations really need people like you, people like myself, people in all industries. It doesn't have to be just business, but there's other industries that these kids can learn from. Giving back to the community is super valuable for me and my growth as well. That's one of the reasons why I do what I do.

Amber [00:10:50]:
Well, we'll put in the description box ways that people can find out about Joss. Can you tell everybody Joss's name? We'll give him a shout out before we wrap up.

Adam Roth [00:10:57]:
Yeah. Joss is one of the directors over at Junior Achievement, and he's great. If you have any kind of organization that wants to be a part of it, a nonprofit that wants to look into volunteering or be a part of JA, you can have a meeting at the facility. They supply lunch. They walk you through the facility and tell you a lot more about Junior Achievement. So that's a good way to get started. I know Joss loves it when he has group visitors. Whether it's a company that brings their staff to the facility and learn more about JA, I would recommend find out when they're having a Biztown, because that's super exciting to see it working.

Adam Roth [00:11:35]:
Joss is a great advocate for Junior Achievement. He's done some really awesome things.

Amber [00:11:42]:
He's a delight, too.

Adam Roth [00:11:43]:
Yeah.

Amber [00:11:45]:
We'll see you soon.

Adam Roth [00:11:46]:
Yeah, we will. But great person just to be around, and he wholeheartedly believes in the organization, so that's good to see.

Amber [00:11:53]:
Awesome. Well, thanks again, Adam. I'm glad that we can collaborate on so many things.

Adam Roth [00:11:57]:
Yeah, no, I'm looking forward to this year. There's more to come.

Amber [00:12:01]:
More to come.

Amber [00:12:02]:
Thanks again for having me.

Adam Roth [00:12:03]:
And I look forward to some more of these chats that we can have.

Amber [00:12:07]:
Anybody that wants to join us, let us know.

Adam Roth [00:12:09]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Amber [00:12:11]:
All right, we'll see you soon. Thanks for listening.

Adam Roth [00:12:13]:
Thank you.

Amber [00:12:13]:
Thanks, Adam.

Adam Roth [00:12:14]:
Take care. All right, bye.

Amber [00:12:17]:
Thank you for joining us on today's episode of The Amber Stitt Show. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, and more, please visit me at: www.AmberStitt.com until next week, enjoy your journey at home, and at work. Thank you for listening!