Colorado Springs-based JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide has announced a two-year, $1 million grant from software giant Oracle Corp. in support of the organization's JA Titan, a Web-based business competition for teenagers.

JA Titan is an online high school-level program that enables students to act as virtual CEOs, exercising critical economic and management decisions using an interactive Web-based simulation of companies competing in an imaginary global marketplace. Among other things, it gives participants firsthand experience in the challenges that come with operating a successful global enterprise. The grant will enable the organization to expand JA Titan beyond the United States and Canada to ten additional countries and translate it into ten languages.

"Through Oracle's considerable support, JA Titan will allow American high school students to work with, learn from, and interact with high school students in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other parts of the world," said JA Worldwide president and CEO Gerald M. Czarnecki. "This is going to bring the global economy to life for young people in an exciting and powerful way. It will not only make our global economy more tangible for these students, but it will leave them better prepared to succeed in that economy when they are adults."