CHAMBERS — The Greater Valley Area Chamber of Commerce is known for their work with businesses and organizations. A lesser known, but equally as impactful part, of the GVACC is the junior ambassadors who are soon beginning their 2018-2019 season.

These Junior Ambassadors are incoming ninth to twelfth graders who demonstrate leadership abilities and a desire to learn more about their community. Through events, meetings and volunteer opportunities, they develop life-long skills by working directly with the heads of GVACC, Ashley Crane and Carrie Royster.

“We try to expose them to things that they need to be aware of as a young adult that impact them directly, whether that’s workplace behavior, financial planning, [etc.]” Crane said. “We are trying to build well-rounded individuals who will hopefully stay in our community and reciprocate the things that they have learned through the, potentially, four years of the program.”

Any interested high school student can become a Junior Ambassador as long as they can commit to meeting the requirements, which are all based around attendance. Working on a system of points, Junior Ambassadors are expected to accumulate a minimum of 700 by earning them at ambassador meetings, event preparation work sessions and volunteer opportunities.

“We want students who are interested in learning about our community, in volunteering and giving back,” Crane said. “Hopefully through the process we can provide them with incentives and opportunities to get involved, meet business leaders in our community and develop skills that they may not have the opportunity to learn about in school.”

Crane added that the Junior Ambassadors, while working closely with them, are quite different that the GVACC Ambassadors.

The older group is made up of employees from chamber businesses and act as more sets of hands to help the chamber run smoothly.

“They act as liaisons between the chamber members and the business community,” Crane said.

The Junior Ambassadors represent the GVACC all the same, but by community service and leadership development.

Their first meeting for this season will be on Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 5:30 p.m. ET at the Bradshaw Library.