A crew of SOM students and staff traveled to New Haven’s Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy for Global Awareness Magnet School on February 20 to teach business and life lessons as part of Junior Achievement Day.
Organized by SOM’s Education Club, the event is a partnership between SOM and Junior Achievement, a national nonprofit with a chapter in Connecticut that teaches young people the knowledge and skills needed to foster academic and economic success.
This year marked the third time that SOM volunteers have taught lessons in business skills, financial literacy, and work and career readiness to K-12 students at Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy.
Neha Mittapalli ’25, one of the Education Club leaders who organized the event, said that 25 volunteers taught in 22 classrooms over the course of the day, interacting with students of all ages and encouraging them to help guide the lesson plans.
“We teach age-appropriate lessons that correspond with the grade levels,” Mittapalli explained. “For example, our second graders learned about voting and different types of careers, whereas the eight-graders learned more complex concepts such as credit and debit transactions.”
Volunteers attended a training session on to prepare for their day in the classroom.
“In the end, they really enjoyed leading a classroom, and the students were very vocally appreciative,” Mittapalli said.
Alexis Willoughby-Robinson, SOM’s associate director for outreach and engagement, has been volunteering for Junior Achievement since SOM launched the partnership. She taught a financial literacy lesson this year.
“Financial literacy is one of the keys to success when we look at the wealth gap,” she said. “Understanding money and how it can work for you and in the economy is essential to change the generational relationship with money.”
Willoughby-Robinson has taught a variety of lessons in the program over the years. “I encourage our students to be impactful in their time here at SOM, and I try to practice what I preach.”
Read more from a Junior Achievement Day student volunteer.
