Local leaders emphasize ‘Excelling through Ethics’ with seniors at MHS

• Junior Achievement

Ryan Huber, of BankWest, interacts with Mitchell High School seniors during the Excelling through Ethics program Tuesday morning at the school. (Photo courtesy of Jacquelyn Johnson)

Talk about it

Ethics are a major part of business success, Mitchell High School seniors were told Tuesday.

They didn’t read that in a book or hear it from a teacher. Instead, Mitchell businessmen and women came to MHS classrooms to spread the message through the Junior Achievement of South Dakota Excelling through Ethics program.

“They had examples from their work environment,” said Jacquelyn Johnson, a financial adviser at Dice Financial Services Group and a Mitchell Junior Achievement board member.

She said the students were eager to discuss the topic.

“There were lots of questions, lots of speaking up,” Johnson said. “The business leaders brought up examples in the workplace, in school and in social situations.”

Junior Achievement felt the need to emphasize ethics after a recent study revealed while 80 percent of students said they were ethically prepared, 50 percent said lying to parents was acceptable and more than one-third said it was important to break school rules to succeed.

The resulting local program is in its fourth year.

The businesspeople worked with Mitchell High School Principal Yvonne Palli to present the program.

The business leaders who took part were Ryan Huber of BankWest; Bryan Hisel of the Mitchell Area Chamber of Commerce; Trish Delaney of Avera Queen of Peace Hospital; Lori Essig of Dakota Wesleyan University; Dan Muck of Mitchell Technical Institute; Trudy Morgan of the Morgan-Theeler law firm; John DeWitte of Vantage Point Solutions; and Dave Brooks and Terry Torgerson of CorTrust Bank.

Junior Achievement of South Dakota has been operating in the state since 1968. Junior Achievement was founded in 1919. It provides economic education to young people in the United States and 122 other countries.

It’s been growing in the state in the past two decades, from serving 1,663 South Dakota students in 1990 to more than 44,000 South Dakota JA students now.

The Excelling Through Ethics program involves 350 business leaders speaking to and with more than 6,000 students statewide.

Tags: junior achievement, high school, life, local, mitchell, education, students, business, ethics