Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund Awards $1 Million Grant to Junior Achievement to Link Students' Interest in Business History With Entrepreneurial Principles STAMFORD, Conn., Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund announced today that it has awarded a high-impact, $1 million multi-year grant to JA Worldwide (Junior Achievement) to develop JA Business and Economics: A U.S. History Perspective (working title), a classroom-based program that will use volunteers from the local business community to educate middle-school students about America's rich and storied economic history, beginning in the fall of 2006. Contrary to recent concerns about American students' ability to compete in the global workforce of the future, a new poll commissioned by Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund and JA Worldwide suggests that students exhibit a strong interest in business and have learned basic facts of business history. JA Business and Economics: A U.S. History Perspective is designed to take students to the next level by linking business history with entrepreneurial principles. The program will serve a wide variety of children of all socio-economic backgrounds. The Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund/JA Worldwide Survey of Business Literacy was conducted by Harris Interactive(R) between November 16 and 22, 2005, polling 948 youngsters ages 10 to 15. The results suggest that America's middle grades students have the "right stuff" to begin engaging more deeply with the principles of business success. For example, 92 percent of the students polled could identify cotton as the staple crop of the pre-Civil War South. Seventy-eight percent recognized Henry Ford as the inventor of the assembly line. Even on a tough question asking for the name of a steel tycoon associated with "a New York concert hall ... and a charitable foundation," 59% chose the name Andrew Carnegie. However, some of the data show that girls may be slightly less knowledgeable than boys on some aspects of U.S. business history. On average, 84 percent of the boys queried correctly identified Henry Ford as the inventor of the assembly line, compared with 72 percent of girls. JA Business and Economics: A U.S. History Perspective aims to make the most of students' innate interest and knowledge base by providing hands-on learning experiences and business role models. "Tomorrow's entrepreneurs should apply the important lessons learned from history in order to compete more effectively in the global economy," said David S. Chernow, president and chief executive officer of JA Worldwide. "The extremely generous grant from the Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund will enable us to develop an exciting curriculum, giving students knowledge and tools to help them succeed in life. This partnership will show what can truly be accomplished when we work together to support the future leaders of tomorrow." "The Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education fund invests in literacy as the basic building block of communication and life success," said Polly O'Brien Morrow, president of the Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund. "Junior Achievement's program aligns with our mission by helping students become literate in economic history in a way that will have a positive impact on their lives and on our communities." The Literacy and Education Fund grant will support the development and implementation of the curriculum to be used for the JA Business and Economics: A U.S. History Perspective, which has the potential to reach students in more than 2,200 middle schools nationwide. The program brings local business leader volunteers into schools to educate students about free enterprise and the role that entrepreneurs have played in our nation's history. The program focuses on key elements of American business and economic history in six categories: agriculture, communication, immigration, industrialization, natural resources and transportation. The JA Worldwide grant is part of a $1.4 million commitment that the Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund recently announced to literacy and education organizations nationwide. Survey Methodology Harris Interactive(R) conducted the online survey between November 16 and 22, 2005 among a nationwide sample of 1,702 U.S. youth ages 8-18 years old of whom 834 were male and 868 were female, and 948 of the total sample were aged 10-15 years. Figures for age, gender, race/ethnicity, highest level of education, highest level of parents' education and region were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. In theory with a probability sample of this size one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results for the overall sample have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Sampling error for the sub-sample results of 10-15 year olds is plus or minus 3 percentage points. This online sample is not a probability sample. About Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund The Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund is a private foundation. The Fund's mission is to provide funding to literacy and education initiatives in key locations where Pitney Bowes has a significant presence. For information about the Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund, go to http://www.pb.com/communityinvestments. General information about Pitney Bowes is available through the Investor Relations portion of the company's website at http://www.pb.com/. About Junior Achievement (JA Worldwide) JA Worldwide is the world's largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and entrepreneurship. Through a dedicated volunteer network, JA Worldwide provides in-school and after-school programs for students in grades K-12. JA Worldwide offers educational programs that focus on seven key content areas: business, citizenship, economics, entrepreneurship, ethics/character, financial literacy, and career development. Today, 142 offices reach approximately four million students in the United States, with more than three million students served by operations in 96 countries worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.ja.org/. For further information contact: Kim Holt/Nancy Zakhary Brainerd Communicators 212-986-6667 ; Peter Kerr Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund 203-351-6350 Stephanie Bell JA Worldwide 719-540-6171 DATASOURCE: The Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund CONTACT: Kim Holt, or Nancy Zakhary, , both of Brainerd Communicators, +1-212-986-6667; Peter Kerr, Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund, +1-203-351-6350, ; Stephanie Bell, JA Worldwide, +1-719-540-6171, Web site: http://www.pb.com/ http://www.pb.com/communityinvestments http://www.ja.org/

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