In ten years of volunteering, one woman has single-handedly inspired more than 2,000 students in the greater Nashville area. On May 14, that woman reached a milestone in volunteerism. Suzanne Bingham of South Nashville completed her 100^th class session for Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee (JA).

JA, a Nashville-based non-profit, uses volunteers from the community to teach students throughout Middle Tennessee the basic workplace and life skills they will need to achieve success. Each class is comprised of an average of six individual lessons; elementary school programs contain five lessons, middle school is comprised of six and high school classes range from six to eight lessons per program.

This means Bingham, who has logged 100 completed classes at the elementary level, has spent more than 500 hours in front of a classroom of students. She is the first JA of Middle Tennessee supporter to achieve this level of volunteerism, according to JA Vice President Beth Torres.

Bingham was recognized for this achievement in front of Ms. Gail Hillis’s Kindergarten class at Paragon Mills Elementary School in Nashville on May 14. Bingham’s coworkers from Ford Motor Credit Company and JA staff members presented Bingham with a crystal vase in recognition of her service to the organization. One of Hillis’s students handed flowers to her JA volunteer in a heart-warming moment of thanks.

“I was completely surprised, yet thrilled, when Junior Achievement recognized my efforts,” Bingham said. “It is awesome to be noticed for your contributions, and based on my passion for the Junior Achievement organization and working with young children, I will continue to do all I can to volunteer for as many teachers and students as possible.”

Bingham shares that passion with her coworkers. Not only does she volunteer for JA, she recruits other Ford employees to serve as JA volunteer teachers as well. Ford employees were on hand at Paragon Mills teaching in other Kindergarten classrooms as part of a unique arrangement of programs called JA in a Day. According to Schenck, JA in a Day allows volunteers to teach all five elementary-level lessons back-to-back to finish in one day, instead of the traditional five-week format.

Ford employees have spearheaded five other JA in a Day programs in Metro Nashville Public Schools this school year.

In her ten years as a JA volunteer, Bingham has been recognized as JA’s Volunteer of the Year (2005), received the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2007 and was invited to the White House last fall to attend President Bush’s Remarks on Volunteering as a result of winning one of the Service Awards.

JA President Trent Klingensmith said, “We at JA couldn’t be more appreciative of what Suzanne has done for JA on both a personal level and a professional level with Ford.”

Bingham is modest about her accomplishments. “Is there any better way to give back to the community than having an opportunity to make an impact on a young child sharing a learning experience for students other than teachers, text books and parents?” she said.

JA recruits and trains all of its classroom volunteers, providing turnkey curriculum kits to each volunteer. In the 2008-2009 school year alone, more than 1,160 volunteers have given nearly 42,000 students in Middle Tennessee relevant education on topics of financial literacy, business skills and workforce readiness.