STARY of Beijing No.2 Middle School 

The HP Global Business Challenge ended on Aug. 22, 2007. JA China  team RZPCL from the Middle School Attached to Renmin University won 5^th place, and STARY from Beijing No. 2 Middle School won 7^th place . They competed with six other teams in Prague, Czech Republic, where the competition took place between August 21-22, 2007. Two delegates from each of the top eight teams were sent to participate in this final round. The competition began in early February with nearly 350 teams from 22 countries worldwide.

First Prize Winners

When Cai Anping presented her 4U Student Company’s business plan to the panel of judges, she explained that her company’s retained profits were allocated in the following way: 50% for company development, 40% for stockholder dividends, and 10% for contributions supporting community programs. Among these, contributions to the community consisted of sponsoring funds to support school volunteer programs, as well as donations to homes for senior citizens and children’s villages.

Cai Anping is a high school freshman at The Middle School Affiliated to Renmin University and the CEO of the 4U Student Company. On January 27^th, she led her company’s top management team in participating in The Third Annual JA China High School Student Business Plan Competition, which was sponsored by Boeing (China) Investment Company, Ltd. At the Peking University Century Lecture Hall, Ms. Cai’s team, along with eight other student company teams hailing from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou contended for first, second and third place awards. At last, first place prizes were awarded to the Cheerz Student Company from Hua Nan Normal University Middle School in Guangzhou and the Hao Bo Digital Workshop from the Foreign Language School Affiliated to the Shanghai Foreign Language University. Each team received 2000 Yuan of seed funding for their company in order to implement their business plan during the coming spring semester.

The JA China High School Student Business Plan Competition is an annual competition for high school students who have already participated in the JA Company Program. In 1919, Junior Achievement, the world’s leading non-profit organization focusing on economics and business education, began its Student Company program for high schools students. It has greatly nurtured young people’s entrepreneurship and skills, and has received much enthusiasm from the business and education sectors. In 2006, supported by Boeing (China) Investment Company, Ltd., the program was launched in China. Over the past school year, a total of 616 high school students and 97 business volunteers took part in JA China’s Student Company program.

During the semester preceding the competition, students studied the basic rules of enterprise systems and operation, and learned the whole process from starting up a company to liquidating the business, which they used to formulate their own feasible business plans. In the semester after the competition, students will set up their own companies and operate the companies under the instruction of business volunteers, to learn more about economic theories and business principals. Each student company will “hire” 20 to 30 student “employees”.

As indicated by JA China’s survey among students who participated in the Student Company program, 85% consider starting a business in the future, while 100% of the student companies include a corporate social responsibility (CSR) component in their long-term business strategies.

After talking with competition judge Tong Zhilei, journalists attending the event learned that CSR was one of the five important indicators when judging the quality of the competition’s student business plans. Tong Zhilei is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company Chinese Online, and one of China’s first university student entrepreneurs, when he led his team to victory at the first annual “Challenge Cup” China University Student Entrepreneurship Competition. He has also launched notable enterprises helping university students launch their businesses, such as the educational website Yi De Fang Dan, for which he serves on the Board of Directors and acts as its Chief Operations Officer.

“The Communist Party’s Seventeenth National Congress clearly called for more emphasis on encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship in order to increase employment. The development of China’s future economy needs a large number of outstanding entrepreneurers. Entrepreneurship education has always been JA’s focus and strength. Our objective is to develop future business leaders with a sense of social responsibility. During the process of designing our curricula and training volunteers, we very much stress the importance of nurturing young people’s awareness of giving back to the community. Also, as a non-profit organization, we provide our programs completely free of charge, and in addition, our unique teaching model engages business volunteers. These totally new styles of presenting information and building experiences are all extremely beneficial in helping young people to truly understand the content and significance of ‘Social Responsibility,’ so that they can effectively put it into practice,” said Gao Yang, Executive Director of JA China.

A Ministry of Education Official Presents First Prize Winners with Awards 

At the beginning of this year, thanks to the sponsorship of the internationally-recognized John Templeton Foundation, JA China organized Fourth Annual Laws of Life Essay Contest Awards Ceremonies in Beijing and Shanghai. The annual ceremonies recognized first, second and third place essay winners consisting of both middle and high school students. Over 600 people attended the two awards ceremonies, consisting of students receiving awards, as well as parents, teacher representatives, and officials from the Bureaus of Education in Beijing and Shanghai.

The Laws of Life Essay Competition has had a globally-extended and profound influence. It provides students with the opportunities to express their most important beliefs and principles in their own words, and helps them to think deeply, seeking out and forming the positive valuesthat will influence their whole life. This year, the Laws of Life Contest was held in China for the fourth time, with over 160,000 middle and high school students from nearly 400 schools participating, the largest program scope during Laws of Life’s four years in China.  This activity also features a total of 10 class activities, each dedicated to discussing a different theme. Additionally, a step-by-step approach helps to strengthen communication among students, parents and teachers, letting students grow and soul search through the process of exchange and contemplation.

Gao Yang, Executive Director of JA China, said that this activity draws upon the “Eight Honors and Eight Disgraces” socialist theory’s concept of honor, as well as a style that is attractive to young people, to effectively launch a youth-oriented education program evoking senses of honor and worth. Also, due to a fresh new program format, it will truly promote youth moral education in unique style.

This activity received strong endorsements and support from education government authorities. Yuan Guiren, Vice Minister of Ministry of Education, praised the activity as successfully carrying out The Opinion of China’s Communist Party and State Council on Strengthening Youth Moral Construction,seeking a combination of social education and students self-education, while building society’s attention to developing its youth in a healthy way. This year, in Beijing and Shanghai, relevant education research authorities in over 30 districts participated in the promotion and implementation of the Laws of Life program.

Mr. Zhang Li, the Director of the National Education Development Research Center, said, “What really moves me is that these middle school students have independently embarked upon their own journeys of moral reflection, contemplating how to live life, how to understand others, and how to live in harmony with other people. This deepens the unity within our Chinese nation, and upholds peaceful living, industriousness, courage, and an ongoing spirit of self-improvement. This is especially prudent in our country, which continues to building socialism and an environment of social harmony. Laws of Life’s results provide a multitude of reasons to undertake the program, and more young Chinese middle schools students must join in.”

The first place winner of the contest’s high school prize category, Beijing 101 Middle School’s Rao Jiaxing, said, “This activity has helped me identify my values from which I can benefit from throughout my life, and has led me to be a more loving person. Through my process of participation, I have learned to really contemplate life, and strengthen my spirit through the experience.”

Mr. Zhang Chaoyang, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Laws of Life’s major media partner, Sohu.com (also a major sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympics), said, “As the 2008 Beijing Olympics approaches, people at Sohu closely observe and reflect upon the interrelated aspects of the Olympics and our nation, society, economy and culture. We deeply understand that our ‘One Hundred Years Olympic Dream’ and our nation are increasingly becoming powerfully inseparable, and our younger generation is exactly the key to growing our nation. Sohu strives, alongside JA China, to promote this activity helping vast numbers of Chinese youth cultivating fine ethical perspectives, letting more Chinese youth obtain its benefit.”

JA (Junior Achievement) was established in 1919. Headquartered in the United States, JA is the world’s largest and most rapidly growing non-profit education organization, currently operating in over 100 countries and reaching over 8,000,000 youth around the world, providing them with free economics and business education programs. JA China was established in 1993, aimed at building cooperation with the business and education sectors to launch and promote principle-centered, interactive-style business and economics education, building character, creativity and leadership among China’s youth. During the 2006-2007 school year, over 140,000 university, secondary school and primary school students participated in JA’s programs.

If you would like to learn more, please visit our special Laws of Life site on Sohu.com:

Ms. Frances Hesselbein (left) presents the award to Ms. Isa Luo (right)

The Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society (The Women’s Forum), recently announced their selections for the 2008 Rising Talents Programme, selecting Junior Achievement China’s Executive Officer Yang Gao as one of twenty “rising talents.”  Ms. Gao will attend the Women’s Forum in Deauville, France during October 16-October 18，2008.

Established in 2005 by Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, the Women’s Forum promotes women’s input on the major economic and societal concerns of our times. The organization hopes that it may serve as a medium to advance the way for solutions towards these problems. The Forum was rated in 2007 by the Financial Times as one of the top five international forums.

The Rising Talents Programme aims at creating a network of outstanding female leaders from all five continents. 20-30 members under the age of 35 are selected from the economic, political, research, civil society and artistic fields.  Members must demonstrate excellent achievement in their career, exceptional commitment, leadership and influence in their community, and/or overcome extraordinary obstacles in achieving leadership in their field(s).

The selection process is extremely rigorous.  The Women’s Forum along with its partner organizations, JP Morgan and Spencer Stuart, an executive search firm, chooses the first-round candidates from nominees who submitted their applications on-line.  A selection committee selects the final candidates for the Programme.  All candidates will attend the Women’s Forum in Deauville, France.   

The majority of the twenty 2008 Programme members come from the education, art, civil society and non-profit sectors. In addition to Ms. Gao, Ms. Jinghui (Joy) Xu, Vice President of Human Resources at PepsiCo Foods, China, was also selected to the Programme from China.

Ms. Gao joined Junior Achievement (JA), China, as its Executive Officer in January, 2004.  Under her leadership, JA has developed at in incredible pace, increasing its impact from 11,172 people in the 2003-2004 school year to 332,813 people in the 2007-2008 school year.  In 2007, CCTV named JA as one of China’s six most innovative non-profit projects.  AmCham Shanghai awarded JA China with its “Exceptional Partner Award” for the organization’s success in facilitating corporate social responsibility programs.  Prior to joining JA China, Ms. Gao worked for General Electric (GE), General Motors and the China International Capital Corporation (CICC).  Ms. Gao holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

When asked about her feelings towards receiving this award, Ms. Gao replied, “This award not only represents the promise of a great future for JA China, it also signifies the recognition of Chinese non-profit organizations in the global community. I believe as China strives for a harmonious society, Chinese non-profits will be able to further develop as well. I hope that this recognition will inspire more Chinese youth to choose a career in the non-profit sector.”

Isa Luo Receives How to Be Award From JA Worldwide

Isa Luo, Program Director of Junior Achievement China was awarded Frances Hesselbein “How to Be” Award during the JA Worldwide Leadership Conference in Miami Beach, Florida, in July. The “How to Be” Award is a very prestigious award in the non-profit sector and most valued by the JA Worldwide family.

Ms. Luo is the first recipient of the “How to Be” Award in JA China’s history. “……She has played a fundamental role in building up JA China’s program presence in Shanghai, impacting tens of thousands of young people, from disadvantaged children of migrant laborers students at Shanghai’s migrant schools to university students at Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University…. Her excellence and dedication to JA China, its staff and programs exhibits her exceptional commitment to China’s youth and her country’s future,” noted Ms. Frances Hesselbein when she announced the recipient.

The Frances Hesselbein ‘How to Be’ award was created in 2003 to recognize outstanding leaders and role models at all levels within the JA family and to foster a climate of open communication throughout JA Worldwide® that values ethical behavior. Twelve JA employees have been named the recipients of “How to Be” award since 2003. Any JA employee could nominate any other employee based on their actions relative to the JA Worldwide values of: 

-Belief in the boundless potential of young people
-Commitment to the principles of market-based economics and entrepreneurship
-Passion for what we do and honesty, integrity, and excellence in how we do it
-Respect for the talents, creativity, perspectives and backgrounds of all individuals
-Belief in the power of partnership and collaboration
-Conviction in the educational and motivational impact of relevant, hands-on learning

The award was designed to recognize our values because they are the organization’s basic precepts about what is important, both in business and in life, how business should be conducted, its role in society, the way the world works, and what is to be held inviolate.  Living according to our personal beliefs and those of JA Worldwide, takes conscious effort, persistence, courage, commitment, and self-discipline. 

The “How to Be” award was named after Frances Hesselbein, former national CEO of Girl Scouts USA and current Chair of the Board of the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Non-Profit Management), in New York City.   A preeminent spokesperson on leadership in the social sector, Frances served as a faculty member for the JA Leadership Academy.  “How to Be” is a phrase used by Ms. Hesselbein.  Her declaration on leadership as often quoted and frequently published, is that “leadership is more about how to be than how to do.’  In other words, it is a person’s quality and character that determine their ability as a leader, even more so than their actions.

Isa Luo is one of two recipients for 2008 “How to Be” award. “Winning this award is a tremendous honor, which not only recognizes my efforts, but also the excellent works of all JA China staff, ” said Isa. “I couldn’t achieve anything without their support. ”

Ms. Isa Luo joined JA China in 2001, serving as Program Associate, and has been named Program Director in Shanghai and responsible for overall management and performance of the JA China Shanghai Office. She is experienced in operating and managing JA programs.  Prior to joining JA China, Isa studied at the John Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, majoring in Chinese and American economy, politics and culture, and international relations. In the years prior to Center for Chinese and American Studies, Isa served as an English teacher for Hunan University.