When sophomore Elijah Mons, secretary of the school’s FFA, was tasked to bring speakers into the 7th-12th grade classrooms to talk about their careers in agriculture, it was only natural that he turned to his mother for help.
After all, Katie Mons is Senior Manager of the area’s Junior Achievement, JA North, a non-profit organization that has career readiness for high school students among its goals.
“I knew that my mom worked with bringing career speakers into classrooms, and I knew that Junior Achievement would be a good partner for this type of event. She helped me find connections to all these people who were in the agriculture industries, which was a huge help.”
Speaking about their career paths in SOS classrooms for 30 minutes on January 5 were, from L-R above, Judi Baker and Stefanie Ochocki of Seneca Foods, Brooke Hacker of the DNR, Emily and Ryan Ponwith of Farmers and Entrepreneurs in Agriculture, Randi McCabe, Suzie Robb and Lindsay Anderson of Compeer Financial, Jennifer Kleinschmidt of Drummers Garden Center, Eli Depuydt of South Central College Ag Service Tech Department and David Pfarr of DuPont Pioneer.
The group talked about how they got to where they are today.
They told students about the classes they liked in high school, what they did after high school and what college courses benefited them most. They talked about how they got their first job and the steps after that took them to their current career. They explained what their typical workday is like, what skills are needed for their job and what their compensation includes. Students had a chance to ask questions.
“JA helps connect students to real-life skills and careers,” said Katie Mons. “By expanding access to opportunities and preparing students for success, we can help close the existing skills gap.”
Planning Ag career speakers day
This year's Ag career speakers day wasn’t the first event Elijah Mons worked on. Just like the other officers, his duty within the FFA is to help plan events and get the community involved in agriculture. In November, he organized the “Voting How To” event for juniors and seniors.
Last year, the FFA put on a similar speaking event, and this year's officer team decided that it would like to do something like it but evolve it and make it its own, he said.
“A lot of the ideas and brainstorming for the event happened over the summer during our officer retreat where all of the FFA officers in the Cleveland Chapter worked together to plan the events for the year.”
While perhaps more important to the upper classes, he said the this year's event went well.
“There were, of course, some bumps in the road of planning this event, but with the help of my fellow officers, FFA members and Junior Achievement, we were all able to come together to plan the best event that we possibly could have. The audience was very respectful and seemed engrossed in what the speakers were talking about.”
About JA North
Junior Achievement North envisions a world where young people have the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities, Katie Mons said. JA programs align to three pathways: Financial Literacy, Career Readiness, and Entrepreneurship. K-12 curriculum is hands-on and meets Minnesota and National Standards.
JA North in the Greater Mankato Area is in 28 schools and is expected to impact over 8,000 students this school year. It extends through Cleveland, Mankato, North Mankato, Eagle Lake, Lake Crystal, Maple River, St. Clair, St. Peter, JWP, TCU and Nicollet.
Mons, who has been with JA for almost seven years, is the Senior Manager of Southern Minnesota Districts and Greater Mankato Area. In her current position, she leads fundraising efforts and oversees programming initiatives throughout the district to ensure JA is meeting standards while staying within its budget.
JA relies on volunteers, donations, grants and fundraisers to bring JA curriculum into classrooms at no cost to the school. Donors include the Davis Family Foundation, which supports Cleveland’s JA programming.
All Cleveland K-6 students have JA this year and the 7th and 8th grade FACS classes will be doing “JA It’s My Future” and “JA Finance Park Virtual” this year.
To learn more about Junior Achievement, visit www.janorth.org.
If you would like to volunteer or make a tax-deductible donation to JA, please email Katie Mons at katie.mons@janorth.org.
With the Ag career day speakers are, from L-R: Samantha Baker, Sierra McCabe, Vivian Hilfer, Anna Kawatski-Klein and Kayla Hoffmann in the front row and Carter Kern, Elijah Mons and Mollie Bowman in the back row.
Photos courtesy of Katie Mons.