Nurturing young minds is the goal of the Junior Achievement of Georgia program designed to give high school students the professional development opportunities that will put them a step ahead in the “real world” of college and scholarship applications.

JA Fellows is an innovative, 20-week after-school program for motivated high school students that provides an unusual, in-depth, real-world experience. Students apply to be a part of the program, submitting an application and references, and participating in an interview.

This is a “learn by doing” program in which students learn about business by actually starting and managing their own companies. During this process they develop their leadership and communication skills and learn to manage their finances.

Students also have the opportunity to attend professional development events and network with business leaders. JA Fellows, which was featured on CNN, is open to any public, private or home-school high school student in metro Atlanta.

This year’s host sites include Chick-fil-A, Cisco, Deloitte, FedEx, Georgia Power, Grant Thornton, IHG, KPMG, Nokia, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rock-Tenn, SunTrust and UPS.

JA Fellows will begin taking applications for fall 2010 in March.  Interested students can find more details about the program and apply online at jafellows.com.

– Collin Kelley