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David Little is one of eight annual recipients of the nonprofit’s Gold Leadership Award.

U.S. Bank Executive Vice President David Little has received the top national volunteer honor from financial education nonprofit Junior Achievement (JA). He is one of eight recipients of the annual Gold Leadership Award this year, chosen out of more than 151,000 volunteers across the United States.  

Little, who leads Operations for our Consumer and Business Banking division, has been involved with JA for more than three decades. That involvement began with teaching its signature classroom-based financial education programming in the late 80s as well as serving on regional boards since the late 90s. 

“I was hooked from my first time volunteering, when I saw how students reacted to the material and interacted with us,” said Little. “Now looking back at the past 30 years, one thing that has not changed is their level of interest – students like learning about business, money, jobs and skills.” 

Junior Achievement relies on volunteers from local business communities to deliver its programming in classrooms – and virtually, amid the pandemic over the past year. JA recently honored U.S. Bank with the 2019-2020 U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award, as a result of employees volunteering more than 10,000 hours with the organization in that time.

Little, who has taught thousands of students over the years, is a believer in and an advocate for the entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and work readiness education provided through JA – especially as a lifelong banker. 

“It’s a fact of life that you’ll deal with money and finances,” said Little. “The earlier we can help students learn and prepare, the better.”