photograph courtesy junior achievement
Junior Achievement’s new headquarters sits in the heart of the Binghampton neighborhood at 516 Tillman.
When leadership at Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South cut the ribbon on their new headquarters in January, the organization was sending a strong signal: They meant business. It was a fitting development for a nonprofit that has garnered much praise and success for its BizTown initiative, which gives elementary-aged students a simulated business and executive experience.
photograph by samuel x. cicci
Leigh Mansberg, Junior Achievement CEO.
Junior Achievement has been teaching practical life skills to students in the region since its founding in 1955. With the new Wang Experiential Learning Center, named after longtime supporters Robert and Susan Wang, its mission to help as many kids as possible continues apace.
Ask local entrepreneurs and native Memphians about their childhood, and there’s a good chance that they participated in a Junior Achievement program growing up. The organization teaches work-readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy skills via a diverse body of volunteers, ranging from business executives to college students. But while the organization has been a staple of Memphis’ nonprofit world for almost 70 years, Junior Achievement recently decided to scale up its operations in a big way.
“Over the past few years, we’ve shifted from serving around 4,500 students per year up to around 20,000 in the 2022-23 school year,” says executive director and CEO Leigh Mansberg. “And our goal is to get that to 25,000 this year.”
Her tone is very matter-of-fact, as if increasing their programming five-fold was a simple challenge. But the career educator, who joined the organization in 2019, is no stranger to wrangling students, crafting a curriculum, or approaching unforeseen problems with a degree of flexibility. “My strength is in curriculum-building, so we aligned our vision and moved forward,” she says. “It’s about building from the ground up, attracting kids in kindergarten, and creating a program that they want to stay a part of until they graduate from high school.”
Photographs courtesy junior achievement of memphis / Brandon Dill
An enclosed courtyard behind HQ hosts Lurlynn Franklin’s “Growing Together” mural.
Many changes have taken place at the organization since Mansberg started. “When I joined, one of our first goals was to find a new building, since we didn’t feel as if we could serve the needs of our community in what was then the current situation,” she says. When Covid hit a year later, the board quickly signed off on the hunt for a new headquarters, with a few key criteria when it came to picking a new location.
“It had to be centrally located, and able to serve as many kids as possible,” she says. “It needed to have a lot of parking, which we didn’t have in our former Downtown space.” Junior Achievement explored new areas like Liberty Park, but when the Save-a-Lot at Tillman and Sam Cooper closed its doors, they knew that building would be the right fit.
“It was sad when the grocery store closed and what that meant for Binghampton,” says Mansberg, “but we wanted to make use of that space and make sure that something good remained in that location.” Most of the structure at 516 Tillman St. remained intact during the six-month process, with the organization opting for a quick $4.2 million renovation rather than a full rebuild. “Our donors and supporters invest in us for the purpose of teaching children,” she says. “So the longer the project took, the longer it would take to do what we do best.”
The new building opened its doors on January 20, 2023, and will primarily serve around 11,000 fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-graders per year. Junior Achievement quickly made itself at home, as did the many students that the organization serves. And that new central location is key, both for immediate and long-term planning.
Photographs courtesy junior achievement of memphis / Brandon Dill
A styling of the Mississippi River runs through the center of the Wang Experiential Learning Center, surrounded by participating business hubs and other rooms where students can learn entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy.
“We have very big goals,” says Mansberg. “We’re a tri-state serving area, and an economy is only as good as the region in which it is placed. So it’s never just about the Memphis economy. We asked the bold question: If you were to draw a 200-mile circle around us, what would happen if all those children talked about joining the economy with the same vocabulary? Our Binghampton spot is right in the middle of that circle, central to the three states and 27 counties we serve.
“It’s very important to me that rural communities understand and believe that we don’t want to take their children and just bring them to Memphis,” she continues. “I want their children to stay in their hometowns and turn them into thriving places.”
But if Junior Achievement is going to help the next generation build up our economy, then the organization is going to look good while doing it. Despite a quick turnaround time, the Wang Center is a beautiful centerpiece for all of Junior Achievement’s work, full of light, colors, flourishes, and all the amenities that aspiring entrepreneurs could ask for. The entry hallway welcomes visitors with a sweeping mural designed by students and curated by local artist Derek Fordjour, with splashes of bright colors depicting the full range of students who might enroll in Junior Achievement.
“The students picked what they wanted to see in the mural,” says Mansberg. “They placed the Black female at the center because she is the most under-represented in high-growth, high-wage STEM careers.”
The BizTown initiative, a key part of Junior Achievement’s programming, is in full force. The main room is filled with hubs featuring local businesses, including FedEx, First Horizon, Terminix, International Paper, Regions Bank, and national companies like Amazon. BizTown combines in-class learning with time spent in a virtual “town,” where students come up with plans and execute them as they lead their own businesses. They each take on various roles at a company, including C-suite and executive positions, and develop skills around economic development, financial literacy, and best business practices. It is the essence of what Junior Achievement provides to kids.
Photographs courtesy junior achievement of memphis / Brandon Dill
Junior Achievement volunteers receive a raucous welcome reception by Wells Station Elementary School students.
The work experience includes a full simulation. For Terminix, for example, students will spray for bugs (using soap and water) to emulate a Terminix client visit. Working at the FedEx booth, they’ll be loading and unloading boxes with the FedEx logo. Other students spending time in BizTown will take on roles from TVA, MLGW, and even the Memphis Police Department.
Small business owners are prominently featured in the headquarters’ Startup Park section, a program that introduces fifth- and sixth-graders to women- and minority-owned businesses in the first stage of development. Recognizable faces are plastered on the walls, such as Feast & Graze founder Cristina McCarter, or Hera Health Solutions CEO Idicula Mathew (a 2022 Innovation Award winner in this magazine). “We want the students to see examples of local success, and successful entrepreneurs that are working and thriving in the communities that they live in,” says Mansberg.
At the far end of the main room is the Ruby Bright City Hall, named for the former executive director of the Women’s Foundation for Greater Memphis. And in the corner is the Feed Your Soul Cafe, where food-based entrepreneurs can present to kids, although cooking is usually left to the professionals. (“The students don’t cook; they mostly are just interested in popcorn in there on their own,” laughs Mansberg.)
Other flourishes fill the building. Photography of the Binghampton neighborhood, taken by students, is prominently featured. “We wanted everybody to understand that Binghampton is a precious neighborhood,” says Mansberg. “It’s someone’s home. So we don’t use pejorative language like good neighborhood or bad neighborhood. All neighborhoods are just someone’s home. And so the best way to see someone’s home is through the eyes of their children.”
If a kid is having a tough day, a quiet room in the corner offers a place where they can go to relax. A free book-vending machine sits off to one side, its constantly rotating selection of literature providing quiet educational enrichment.
Everything at the new center follows the Junior Achievement motto of “Every Child World Ready.” “The kids who come through here are the future, so we challenged our staff to come up with four words that we would live by,” says Mansberg. “‘Every Child World Ready’ became our goal, to ensure that every student is prepared to face any challenge when they graduate and are ready to enter the workforce.”
Photographs courtesy junior achievement of memphis / Brandon Dill
Volunteer Gisella Guerrero, community organizer for MICAH, leads a classroom of Junior Achievement students at Wells Station Elementary School.
Even with the impressive surroundings, Mansberg is constantly seeking new ways to benefit students. A recent initiative is the launch of World Ready Radio, a Junior Achievement podcast that began in September. Each episode invites local business leaders to chat with Junior Achievement students. The first saw Mansberg and Mike Bruns, founder and past president of Comtrak Logistics, chat with local fourth-grader Valentina. The conversations give students direct, conversational access to business owners, with whom they can discuss their career questions and future goals.
“It’s just another way to get our message out there,” says Mansberg of the 10- to 15-minute episodes. “It exposes our students — many of whom have never set foot in a station — to radio. We had everyone from elementary school students to graduates come out, and they were able to ask questions about our work and backgrounds too, and how we got where we are.”
The first season of World Ready Radio will have 12 episodes, released each Wednesday on the Junior Achievement website or wherever podcasts are aired. In addition to connecting students with local leaders, Mansberg felt it was critical to give her students a platform.
“It’s just providing an ounce of hope for us,” she says. “I’m exhausted from listening to people complain about our city’s children. There are thousands of amazing children here, and we can become stuck on a few who are making very bad choices. These kids are going to own our economy one day, so we should have some hope in them. Let’s make sure we’re supporting them and listening to their stories.”
Junior Achievement’s Wang Experiential Learning Center is located at 516 Tillman St. Learn more about the organization’s programming at jamemphis.org
