CenturyLink employees volunteer for largest JA in a Day in Colorado

DENVER – CenturyLink again is partnering with Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain, Inc. to create the largest JA in a Day event in Colorado for the tenth year running. Approximately 250 CenturyLink employees are spending a day in 125 classrooms in Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs and Wellington. The volunteer effort takes place during Financial Literacy Month and coincides with National Volunteer Week (April 15-21, 2012).

Using Junior Achievement’s proven lesson plans, CenturyLink employees are volunteering more than 4,000 hours to teach students in kindergarten through eighth grade, inspiring and preparing more than 3,000 young people to succeed in a global economy. The lesson plans focus on three areas: entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness. CenturyLink has taught the program in Denver in past years, but is expanding this year to Boulder, Colorado Springs and the Fort Collins area.

“We’re proud of our partnership with Junior Achievement that allows us to bring our business experience into the classroom,” said Scott Russell, CenturyLink vice president and general manager for Denver and Northern Colorado. “As a major employer and a company serving more than a million customers in Colorado, we see how these lessons are put into practice in our daily lives. Whether it’s a customer budgeting for their communications needs or an executive managing a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in Colorado’s network, these are foundational lessons that these kids will use for the rest of their lives.”

Kindergarteners learn about personal budgeting using stories about helping, working, earning and saving while eighth graders may tackle key aspects of the global economy, what makes world trade work and how trade affects students’ daily lives.

“We are extremely grateful for CenturyLink’s support. Their volunteers serve as valuable role models by helping students to understand the important part that education plays in their future success,” said Robin Wise, president and CEO of Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain, Inc.  “Junior Achievement is able to make a significant impact on the lives of Colorado’s young people thanks to the dedication of organizations like CenturyLink.”

Junior Achievement’s programs are independently tested and proven to make a significant impact. To date, Junior Achievement’s programs – all of which align with Colorado State Standards in Social Studies and personal Financial Literacy, in addition to several standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts – result in an approximate 19% knowledge gain throughout all districts on topics such as global competition, business ethics, and needs and wants.

About CenturyLink

CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company in the United States. The company provides broadband, voice, wireless and managed services to consumers and businesses across the country. It also offers advanced entertainment services under the CenturyLink^TM Prism^TM TV and DIRECTV brands. In addition, the company provides data, voice and managed services to enterprise, government and wholesale customers in local, national and select international markets through its high-quality advanced fiber optic network and multiple data centers. CenturyLink is recognized as a leader in the network services market by key technology industry analyst firms, and is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprises through Savvis, a CenturyLink company. CenturyLink’s customers range from Fortune 500 companies in some of the country’s largest cities to families living in rural America. Headquartered in Monroe, La., CenturyLink is an S&P 500 company and is included among the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations. For more information, visit www.centurylink.com.

For further information: John Hall, 303-992-4336 John.Hall@CenturyLink.com