Junior Achievement Accelerates Outreach to Indigenous Students in New Mexico

• Junior Achievement of New Mexico is celebrating a 230% expansion of its program to bring financial and career readiness curriculum to more Indigenous students. 
• A $98,000 grant from Marathon Petroleum Corporation allowed the nonprofit to expand to more schools where Indigenous students represent at least 30% of the enrollment. 
• The nonprofit’s Indigenous Student Outreach Program served 1,491 students in 2023-24, up from 648 the year before.

The magnitude of the work done in schools by Junior Achievement (JA) of New Mexico can be seen in this note from a student: “Thank you for your help with what I want to be when I grow up. I also want to thank you for giving me more confidence to graduate high school.”

This student took part in the recent ‘JA in a Day’ event at Tres Volcanes Community Collaborative School (TVCCS) in Albuquerque. It showcased one way JA pursues its core objective of introducing K-12 students to the fundamentals of financial literacy, career readiness and entrepreneurship to better equip them for the future. ‘JA in a Day’ involves joining with educators and local volunteers to bring an entire, five-session JA curriculum to every student at a school in one day.

“Thank you for your help with what I want to be when I grow up. I also want to thank you for giving me more confidence to graduate high school.”

JA of New Mexico also used the Albuquerque event to celebrate the expansion of its Indigenous Student Outreach Program through a $98,000 grant from Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC), which was spread across the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years.

“Prior to working with MPC, we didn’t have the funding or organizational capacity to gather data or expand outreach to educators working with Indigenous students,” said JA of New Mexico President Erin Hagenow. “With this funding, we have been able to build a full Indigenous Student Outreach Program.”

In the 2022-23 school year, JA of New Mexico served 648 students at schools where Indigenous students represent at least 30% of the population. In 2023-24, the number of students served at such schools grew 230% to 1,491. TVCCS is an example of this growth. Not only are Indigenous students 30% of the K-8 school’s enrollment, TVCCS also has a Diné Language and Culture Program, which focuses on the native language of the Navajo Nation.

MPC’s support for JA of New Mexico goes beyond funding to involve MPC employee volunteers who help present JA curriculum. During the event at TVCCS, Principal Stakeholder Engagement Manager Robert Doore, Principal Right-of-Way Specialist Michelle Gaillour and Albuquerque Light Product and Asphalt Terminals Manager Will Foster provided lessons to second, third and fourth-grade students. Board games and other instructional tools were used to explain concepts such as profit and loss in building a business, problem-solving, how to manage money and the process of applying for jobs.

“It was rewarding to see students really begin to grasp the material and understand more about possible pathways for their futures,” said Doore, who is a member of the Blackfeet Nation. “I’m proud that we are bringing this kind of education to more Indigenous student populations that may have had very little exposure to it in the past.”