Stephanie Heatley, empowering youth through Junior Achievement

Welcome to the last installment of our Community Kindness Series! 

We thought it would be appropriate to end the series with the person who inspired it all. Everyone, say “hello” Stephanie Heatley. On a typical day you can find Stephanie working in our Accounting department. But, if you’re lucky (and are in either elementary or middle school), you’ll find Stephanie in your classroom teaching students on behalf of Junior Achievement. Junior Achievement USA is a nonprofit that prepares young people for success and helps them achieve economic empowerment through education.

“It’s an incredible international organization, and I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with their Maine branch for over twenty years. I first learned about Junior Achievement through my husband, who was personally involved in Junior Achievement when he was in high school back in the 80s. He enjoyed it so much that he eventually became a board member for the organization. After meeting my husband, I then started working for them as a volunteer for about ten years, and after that time I was hired to work for them as an accountant. Since then I’ve stepped back into a volunteer role.”

Today, the amount of volunteer hours Stephanie commits to tends to fluctuate. But she always tries to teach at least one class per semester.

“Off the top of my head, I’ve taught at Windham Middle School, Manchester School in Windham, an elementary school in Falmouth, Lincoln Middle School. But it’s possible I’ve worked at a couple of others and am not remembering! My repeat classes are in Gorham (who I’ve been working with for six years now) and my two classes with the 5th graders at Manchester. I started volunteering with JA as a way to get involved in my kids’ classrooms when they were in school. I was a teacher for a short period of time, and while I enjoyed the work, I decided to set out on a different path professionally. This has been a great way to have a similar experience to teaching.”

As a volunteer for Junior Achievement, Stephanie’s goal is to teach students about financial capability, work and career readiness, and business ownership. “I teach a variety of lessons for each grade, but one that I enjoy is 2nd grade, where students work in groups using stickers to “make” doughnuts – they get to learn about production and supplies. That program also uses a huge drawn map of a town and they get to learn about different jobs in their town and how people interact in a community.”

“The sixth grade “It’s My Future” program is fun because we talk about high-growth jobs, STEM, and a map of their future. It uses the US Department of Labor’s 16 Career Clusters to help them better understand how different fields work. My favorite part is a personal assessment they do that is 5-6 pages of questions where they answer about their interests and then they can use the totals they come up with to be able to determine which career clusters might be a good fit and which ones they might want to avoid.”

When asked about success stories, two come to mind for Stephanie. “I remember teaching one fifth grade class where we learned about entrepreneurship and starting your own business based on something you love. I had a student who was so inspired by the lesson that he went home and started making his own pillows and selling them to classmates. Who doesn’t love a good pillow? There was also a student who ended up starting his own business making leather bracelets. To this day he regularly makes donations to JA, and I love seeing his bracelets being sold in local stores.”

When the bell rings, Stephanie feels just as big of an impact as the students do. “It is very rewarding to see the immediate impact you make on students, and to see the lightbulb switch on as they make connections. They are engaged, and they really benefit from being exposed to new ideas, and from working with an adult who is not their teacher. The response is always very positive and they really get excited for people to come into their classroom. The kids will write thank you letters at the end of the semester. From reading those letters I have so much fun seeing which students were inspired by the course.”

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