Brooke Cameron, an account manager at Brookings Radio, speaks to a Medary Elementary first grade class as a volunteer with Junior Achievement. In her visits, which span a five-week period, Cameron talks to students about the importance of volunteering.

"I help mom put dirty diapers in the garbage." "I load the dishwasher." Those are responses from Pam Larson's Medary Elementary firstgrade students who are learning about being a successful member of "Our Family." The discussion took place last week between Larson's students and Junior Achievement volunteer Brooke Cameron. JA's goal Junior Achievement is "JA" to just about everyone who participates is to teach kids about basic economics, personal and workplace ethics and free enterprise. But what do diapers and dishes have to do with financial planning and global markets? Workers and consumers

The nonprofit organization's programs begin at the elementary school level, teaching children how they can impact the world around them as individuals, workers and consumers.

Their curricula includes "Ourselves," which explains personal economics through a collection of short stories read aloud to kindergartners; "Our Family," that teaches first-graders the roles people play in the local economy as well as how they can work togeth- er; "Our Community," where second-graders explore the interdependent roles of workers in a community and how communities work; "Our City," which teaches third-graders about careers, the skills needed to work in those careers and how businesses contribute to a city; and "Our Region," which introduces fourth-graders to the relationship between the natural, human and capital resources found in different regions and explores regional businesses that produce goods and services. Biggest program of its kind

According to its Web site, www.ja.org, JA is the world's largest organization dedicated to youth economic education in the U.S. and in more than 100 countries, reaching 8.3 million students globally each year.

Since 1968, the organization has been impacted over 43,000 South Dakota students. Brookings began its own chapter in the early 1990s and last year served 2,137 students. Programs are provided at no cost to schools and are requested by teachers.

Vicki Jensen, a credit coordinator at Larson Manufacturing, has been with JA for 16 years and has been chairwoman for the past two. She said she's enjoyed being involved over the years because she loves helping kids.

"It's fun, and it's so rewarding," she said.

And it's rewarding because she sees the value in it. "There are so many parents who don't teach their kids guidelines with money, planning and thinking ahead," said Jensen. "These kinds of things in the family aren't focused on because parents are so busy focusing on daily living."

Kris Seas, a national account executive at Larson and JA board secretary , has been working with eighth-graders and says the program is starting to tie into their personal lives. "They're looking at career choices and asking themselves , 'How am I going to pay for insurance, and how am I going to save for a car?' '' And South Dakota can be proud of the group's efforts. Last year, South Dakota was named one of the best JA areas in the world, as determined by how many students they reach. JA programs reached 33 percent of the state's students . The national average is at 7.88 percent. For upper levels, too

JA programs continue through middle and high school, too.

"Tighten" is a JA program given to one high school economics class. With the help of a computer program, students build a pretend business and learn about payroll, overhead and taxes.

Another JA program called "Excelling through Ethics," teaches students how ethical behavior is essential to their futures. JA Worldwide came up with the training module after Deloitte, the largest audit, tax, consulting and financial advisory agency in the world, conducted a survey about ethics amongst high schoolers. Their results were, according to Jensen, "flooring."

The survey found that 49 percent of teens who say they are ethically prepared for the workplace believe that lying to parents is acceptable, and 61 percent have done so in the past year.

When Brookings High School Principal Paul v on Fischer was presented with this data he said, "Wow, we have to see what we can do here to try to change this thinking."

Seas and Jensen said although "Excelling" is only meant to be implemented in one class von Fischer said he felt the need to get every high schooler involved. "We need to get the finger on the pulse of what students think about what ethics means to them," said Von Fischer.

Right before Christmas break, local JA volunteers presented the ethics program to more than 750 Brookings High School students.

Thirteen South Dakota communities benefited from the "Excelling" program thanks to a $25,000 sponsorship from the Walmart Foundation. In Brookings, 45 executive-level volunteers from all walks of the business community posted topics and encouraged discussion.

Von Fischer said he liked this format versus having students "lectured to."

This was the second year the program was brought to the high school, and von Fischer said it meets its intended goals. "Junior Achievement is a little organization with a large amount of success ," he said. Fund drive beginning

JA's fund drive is kicking off in March, its board hoping to raise $32,000 from businesses, individuals , foundations and special events. Neither the South Dakota or Brookings offices of JA receive United Way or government agency funding.

In addition to its upcoming campaign, money is also raised during their annual Bowl-A-Thon in November. All money raised in Brookings stays with the local chapter and is used to pay for training.

Locally, JA has an extensive support system of more than 100 volunteers, but they are always in need of more. Volunteers receive necessary materials and training. Anyone interested in getting involved as a volunteer or a financial contributor can call Jensen or Seas at Larson Manufacturing at 692-6115 , or by visiting Junior Achievement's Web site at: www.jasd.

Seas said she hopes the community will see the value of JA. She sees directly and hears feedback from parents as one or two students in every class go home and really talk about what they learn. Moms and dads have even pulled her aside in public to thank her.

"They say to me things like, 'You can't imagine the conversations we've had as a result of this p