JR Executives Leadership Program

JR Executives Leadership Program is designed to develop leadership skills among youth by creating a positive image, communication skills, and opportunities that will help them plan for success in their school, career, community, and future work experiences. The program offers a format for these youth to be exposed to educational opportunities in the state of Arizona.

We all have a picture in our mind of the type of child that youth mentoring works with. We see them in the news and hanging out on street corners. We call them “troubled teens” or “at risk kids.” However, many other children who are common to youth mentoring are unseen, unnoticed, withdrawn and too often friendless.

Children growing up in very difficult circumstances need to experience love that is expressed over time. Our leadership team will spend 20-30 hours with the youth each month. The consistency of this commitment speaks loudly. It says, “You are valuable. What you think about and the things that bother you are important.” It also gives the mentor the ability to interact with the child in circumstances that cannot be planned into a curriculum. You cannot schedule quality time or teachable moments. However, when kids receive a few hours with a consistent mentor on a weekly basis, these moments show up unannounced.

Students selected to JR Executives will be required to attend all sessions and complete various homework assignments. The tentative schedule includes (20) half day sessions , (2) Saturday sessions per month (2nd and 4th Saturday), weekly assignments and community involvement throughout the year. We will focus on the outline descriptions below, however, we will highlight: career development, financial development, educational advancement, social and religious development. Each student will be required to email JR Executives once a week with their weekly progress report.

JR Executives and Franklin Covey will be conducting The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens workshop. Life for teens today is no longer a playground. It’s a jungle out there, with tough choices, peer pressure, personal insecurities, and anxiety about what others think. Then consider feelings of depression, inferiority, and jealousy of others’ successes, plus self-destructive behaviors such as pornography, vandalism, and gangs. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens® workshop from FranklinCovey, based on the best-selling book of the same name by Sean Covey and the No. 1 best-selling business book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, gives young people a set of proven tools to deal successfully with real life. The training is a means for educators, administrators, and superintendents to help improve student performance; reduce conflicts, disciplinary problems, and truancy; and enhance cooperation and teamwork among parents, teens, and teachers.

JR Executives and Toastmasters International will help the youth to learn oral communication skills that they will need to be successful adults. Toastmasters International is the leading movement devoted to making effective oral communication a worldwide reality. Through local clubs, Toastmasters members learn the arts of speaking, listening and thinking – vital skills that promote self-actualization, enhance leadership, foster human understanding and contribute to the betterment of mankind.

JR Executives and John Maxwell, Inc. will be conducting Developing the Leader Within You.  The foundational principles of leadership will afford participants the opportunity to 1) Learn each leadership principle, 2) Discuss how to apply each leadership principle, 3) Engage in leadership application with others and 4) Participate in an interactive and fun leadership game designed to help participants recognize their ability to lead, improve their self-esteem, and learn how to serve and add value to others daily. These leadership principles can be applied at school, home, in the workplace and in the community. Participants will also receive career and professional development coaching. 

Developing the Leaders Within You Topics Include:

• The Definition of Leadership: Influence

• The Foundation of Leadership: Character

• The Quickest Way to Gain Leadership: Problem Solving

• The Extra Plus in Leadership: Attitude

• The Heart of Leadership: Serving People

• The Price Tag of Leadership: Self-Discipline

• The Expansion of Leadership: Personal Growth

• Professional Development: Image and preparing a professional portfolio

JR Executives works to improve educational opportunity for students through scholarships, academic achievement initiatives, mentoring opportunities and youth leadership development. Our goal is to equip our youth for competition with the best and the brightest in the nation and the world. It is also to close the persistent achievement gap that continues to separate African-American and Latino students from Asian and white students.

Each business attire section is led by an experienced JR Executive Leadership staff member or community leader. Two days a month (minimum) and weekly assignments will be devoted to each component of the program. Students will learn about leadership as a set of skills and behaviors that influence followers. Leadership should be viewed not as a position, but as a learned activity that can be used by anyone regardless of their position. In helping the students to develop an ability to positively influence others, we will focus on political influence by using the media and a variety of other techniques. Students will synthesize their disparate insights and knowledge, receives their graduation awards, and celebrate with new friends.

~ Executive Director