June 21, 2007—Last month, Farney Elementary School fourth-grade student Adam O’Neal became the 2 millionth student to actively participate in Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas.

In 2006-2007, more than 7,000 business professionals, parents, retirees and college students entered schools in Southeast Texas to teach Junior Achievement programs. JASET officials anticipated the 2 million milestone coming this year and, as they made calculations in February, discovered the student would come from Angela Dissly’s fourth-grade class at Farney.

“We got in touch with Ms. Dissly and let her know one of her kids was the 2 millionth,” said Jennifer Anderson, JASET executive vice president. “We asked her to take a look and choose a student who was [most enthusiastic about Junior Achievement]. Adam was the one that we chose.”

O’Neal has received JA instruction in each academic year except third grade. This year he was able to experience the JASET program Exchange City, a converted warehouse at 3710 Dacoma that allows students to run their own mock city for a day.

 “Exchange City is a wonderful learning opportunity for kids to understand why they have to be educated in order to be able to join the workplace,” said Pam Scott, director of CFISD Partners in Education.

According to Anderson, O’Neal will be featured in the JASET Annual Report that comes out in January, and on Wednesday, June 27, will give a three-minute speech about JA at the JASET Annual Meeting at the Centerpoint Energy corporate office.

The attention O’Neal is receiving illustrates the significance of JASET’s long-awaited milestone, Anderson said.

“We reached our 1 millionth in 2000 or 2001 when we had already been here for over 50 years,” she said. “We’ve already hit our 2 millionth since then. That shows the amount of growth we’ve had in the area.”

JASET has been in operation since 1945, with the purpose of educating and inspiring young people to value free enterprise and understand business and economics to improve the quality of their lives.

	Farney Elementary School fourth-grade student Adam O’Neal, pictured during his trip to Exchange City, was recently honored as the 2 millionth student to experience Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas.
	Angela Dissly’s fourth-grade class at Farney Elementary School is pictured during their JASET curriculum instruction last month. Adam O’Neal, the 2 millionth student selected by JA, is on the far left of the bottom row.

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