SALT LAKE CITY — For John Haugland, programs such as Junior Achievement can help him reach his goals.
“I can do anything, be anything, create anything, dream anything and become anything because you believe in me,” the fourth-grader told an audience of prominent business, community and government leaders at Junior Achievement of Utah's 29th annual Governor's Breakfast on Tuesday at JA City on the fourth floor above Discovery Gateway Children's Museum.
Junior Achievement classes provide students with real-world lessons in financial literacy, career readiness and entrepreneurship, and are taught by more than 6,000 volunteers in Utah.
“Us kids, my age and all the way up to the age that kids graduate, we are the future of tomorrow," John said. "We need education.”
Gov. Gary Herbert said Junior Achievement keeps dreams alive and gives kids the skills they need to achieve them.
“It's just a great opportunity for our young people to be mentored by successful business people, being taught good principles and good values, and help them prepare to become a rising generation and the leaders of tomorrow,” Herbert said.
John may be one of those leaders. He said he wants to be an attorney, then governor of Utah and then president of the United States.
“We want to make sure they have the skills necessary to compete and win,” Herbert said.
The governor said such programs are a complement to the public education system.
After the breakfast, there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony to relaunch the KSL/Deseret News storefront at JA City.
Fifth-grade students who land jobs at the KSL storefront sell on-air ads, and their television anchors interview student CEOs. The camera operator broadcasts the interviews live on monitors throughout JA City.
Deseret News reporters and photographers comb JA City for newsworthy stories. The stories and photos are then posted on the monitor outside the KSL/Deseret News storefront. Rather than waiting until the end of the day to print a newspaper, reporters are able to post JA City news as it happens.
Email: vvo-duc@deseretnews.com