Junior Achievement

Mission: To educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, understand business and economics and be work-force ready. Junior Achievement hopes to develop a desire in young people to stay in school and appreciate lifelong learning and to develop positive attitudes toward work. Throughout the school year, Junior Achievement volunteers present hourlong economics-oriented lessons to students in grades kindergarten through 12. Latest accomplishment: Junior Achievement of Central Maryland received the Peak Performance Award from Junior Achievement Inc. for 79 percent program growth during the 1997-1998 school year and achieved the highest growth rate of Junior Achievement offices throughout the country.

When Towson offensive coordinator Anthony Gilardi brought up the idea of shifting Thomas DeNapoli from midfield to attack in their end-of-the-year meeting in 2012, the suggestion did not faze DeNapoli. That is because he had done it in the past. A midfielder in his junior year at Lynbrook High School in his native New York, DeNapoli moved to attack in his final season there after graduation sapped that unit of several keep players. Fast forward to last summer, and DeNapoli found himself in a familiar position.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Just after he was named publisher of Fortune magazine in 1987, Jim Hayes was ready to cut off the publication's substantial annual donations to Junior Achievement Inc."Many of the managers didn't understand why we were involved and why it cost us so much money," Mr. Hayes said. "But I decided we needed to look at them once before we discounted the entire relationship."Mr. Hayes went to the group's annual Business Hall of Fame dinner to get a taste of what Junior Achievement was all about.

United Way of Central Maryland's Community Partnership Board of Carroll County recently awarded a community grant of $1,500 to the Westminster-based Target Community and Educational Services. Target serves Carroll County residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities achieve self-sufficiency. The grant will support Target's partnership with Junior Achievement of Central Maryland to help teach employment and independent living skills to 67 county residents. "We are grateful for this opportunity to partner with United Way ... and Junior Achievement to provide the training required to strengthen the employment skills critical to assist these individuals to live as independently as possible," said Tom Zirpoli, president and CEO of Target.

Junior Achievement (JA) of Central Maryland launches a monthlong fund-raising drive today to raise $300,000 to provide business programs for 16,000 schoolchildren in the Baltimore metropolitan area and Cecil County.W. Douglas Littrell, the organization's president, said the drive is aimed at businesses. About 125 of the area's top executives and business managers were expected to attend the campaign's kick-off breakfast today at the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s Spring Garden Plant at Leadenhall Street and Fort Avenue in South Baltimore.

Forget bake sales. Pupils at Running Brook Elementary in Columbia organize their own annual Economics Fair. The fourth-graders make crafts, market them to peers and donate the proceeds to charity. Best of all, the fair teaches them about running a business. "We wanted to do something a little bit different, where the children could make something rather than just their parents making baked goods," said fourth-grade teacher Melissa Peyton. This year's fair, held Thursday, raised $340 for tornado victims in LaPlata.

Publisher, multimillionaire and sometime-presidential candidate Steve Forbes will help Junior Achievement of Central Maryland recognize this year's Spirit of Achievement Award winners tomorrow night.Forbes, a member of the Junior Achievement national board, joins the group in honoring Provident Bank of Maryland and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. for their work helping youth.Junior Achievement of Central Maryland itself will be honored at the benefit dinner at the Omni Hotel in Charles Center for 40 years of involvement with state schools.

Just a couple years ago, a politically correct Russian high school student looked forward to becoming a member of the Komsomol, or Communist Union of Youth.At 14, the student would be tested on his knowledge of the Komsomol bylaws and understanding of Marxist-Leninist doctrine. If he passed, he would be rewarded with a membership card and a red flag-shaped pin with a portrait of Lenin.How times have changed. The new right of passage for a Soviet high school student may soon be joining Junior Achievement and learning the principles of capitalism.

The Carroll County Chamber of Commerce honored Donna Tehansky of Kelly Temporary Services Inc. with a "Business and Education Partnerships" award at its monthly breakfast meeting Tuesday.Ms. Tehansky has participated in the Passport to the Future program, job fairs for the Carroll County public schools, the Displaced Homemaker program at Carroll Community College, Job Training Partnership Act programs and Alternative Programs.She also is active in Junior Achievement and a member of the Chamber of Commerce Business and Education committee.

Thomas Leroy Woods, former executive director of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, died Thursday of cancer at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 73. Mr. Woods was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 1956 from Carrick High School. After serving in the Army from 1956 to 1958, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1962 in journalism from the University of Florida. Mr. Woods worked as a reporter for the Miami Herald before beginning his career in association management with the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Lime Kiln eighth-grader Clare Napoli set out to be a big spender, envisioning herself with an expensive house and a sporty Ford Mustang. Then the Junior Achievement online economics education program, called JA Finance Park, gave her a virtual identity, and Napoli discovered that she was a parent of two children. "It told me that I should plan better because I have to pay for their education," said Clare, who with other Howard County eighth-graders is using JA Finance Park as part of their consumer science curriculum.

If you're spring cleaning and want to purge piles of outdated and unnecessary documents and electronic media full of sensitive information, we've got the shredding event for you. The Maryland Attorney General's office , Incred-A-Shred and Junior Achievement will host a free shredding event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 9 at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, 1400 W. Cold Spring Lane. Both businesses and residents are invited to bring their shred-worthy items to be destroyed, keeping your personal information --- or your clients --- out of the hands of identity thieves.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen, The Baltimore Sun Semmes Guest "Buck" Walsh, a retired Monumental Corp. executive who enjoyed singing, died Friday of a brain tumor at his Owings Mills home. He was 84. Mr. Walsh, the son of a career naval officer and a homemaker, was born and raised in Annapolis. He was a 1943 graduate of Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1946 in civil engineering from Yale University and a master's degree in business from Harvard Business School in 1950.

Thomas Leroy Woods, former executive director of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, died Thursday of cancer at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 73. Mr. Woods was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 1956 from Carrick High School. After serving in the Army from 1956 to 1958, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1962 in journalism from the University of Florida. Mr. Woods worked as a reporter for the Miami Herald before beginning his career in association management with the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The staff meeting had just ended at the radio station as the chief executive officer struggled with a computer program to pay a bill. Frustrated, 11-year-old Rebecca Forrester lost it when a colleague allowed a friend to give a shout-out on the air. "You have to pay for that!" she yelled to her disc jockey. Rebecca slapped her hand to her head and turned back to her computer screen. It's tough being boss, even of a pretend Christian rock radio station. Last week, Arundel Bay Christian Academy in Lothian was the first school to get a daylong dip into the business world at Junior Achievement's new simulated community, called BizTown.

The line snaked halfway across the room as the early-morning customers waited to deposit their quarters, nickels and dollar bills. "I'll take the next person," said Lynn Kirby, assistant manager of Westminster Union Bank's TownMall branch. One by one, her young clients stepped up to her "counter" -- a small desk in a classroom. Kirby recorded their names, account numbers and deposits before slipping them into a manila envelope: $6. $5. $2.39. Her fellow teller, fifth-grader Billy Raley, was on his second tour of duty that Tuesday morning.

Kim Frock and Stephanie Wiegel want to make Junior Achievers out of communists.More accurately, former communists who are looking forways improve their native economy. In Moscow schools, the Carroll residents showcased America's free-enterprise system before hundreds ofRussian teachers and students.Neither Frock, a North Carroll High social studies teacher, nor Wiegel, a North Carroll senior, questioned their mission's success, but both said it would be some time before their counterparts could take advantage of their lessons.

Carroll County's Chamber of Commerce recognized five members for individual achievements at the group's quarterly "Hats Off" breakfast meeting yesterday.The local organization also honored several businesses for their work with the Carroll County public schools."Hats Off" awards went to:* Brian Raver, president of Advanced Vacuum at the Carroll County Air Business Center, for the expansion of his business that sells vacuum pumps to scientific and manufacturing industries.* Don Bullock, owner of Bullock's Airport Inn at the Carroll County Air Business Center, for opening the first smoke-free restaurant in the county.

Peter Kilchenstein's eyes stretched open and his jaw sagged with disappointment when he realized his mistake: He didn't have enough money in his checking account. He had added when he should have subtracted. He thought he had $1.10 to spare. It wasn't until after he had carefully filled in all the blanks for a $1 check and handed it over as payment that he discovered he had only 90 cents in his account. In the process, he learned a new word - overdrawn. "I guess I'll have to return it," Peter said as he puzzled over how he had managed to overspend.

Decisions about pricing, product mix and location tumbled through Alex Waggoner's mind as he started his enterprise. His business adviser observed his interactions with potential customers and counseled him about a more aggressive sales approach. Was he a hot-shot Wharton graduate working with a venture capitalist? No, Alex was just 6, setting up a summer lemonade stand in Seattle, and his business adviser was his mother. Now 7 and in his second year as a lemonade salesman, Alex has decided to post signs in his neighborhood, directing people to his stand, "instead of yelling as they go by."