Simplified: Junior Achievement of South Dakota is bringing a new program to give kids a chance to experience what it's like to participate in a local economy. Here's what you need to know about JA BizTown.
Why it matters
- Junior Achievement is all about setting kids up for success in the future by teaching them practical skills about managing money, working together and accomplishing goals.
- With BizTown, fifth- and sixth-grade students get a chance to run their own pop-up town for the day. They're assigned a role – for example, mayor, CEO of a business, employee at a local business, etc. – and they have to work as a team to keep the community functioning.
- BizTown is the nonprofit's second immersive learning experience of its kind. The organization also runs JA Finance Park, a program where older middle- and high-school students get a chance to build a budget within the constraints of circumstances assigned to them. For example, they might be someone with student loan debt, kids and a mortgage to pay, and they have to figure out how to budget.
"It really takes our impact to the next-level," President and CEO Kayla Eitreim said of the immersive learning experiences.
Tell me more
Within the JA BizTown event, students get to do things like voting in a local election, getting a debit card, going to work, shopping on breaks from work, and paying back a business loan. Within those tasks, students also have to budget both their time and money.
- During a session Thursday morning in Sioux Falls, dozens of fifth graders were working to pay back business loans, track their finances and decide if they want to spend their money on a car, groceries or an ice cream party.
There's also a lot of teamwork involved. Kids would ask each other, "What should I spend my money on?" or "Did you vote yet?" as they traveled from booth to booth visiting the various elements of a town.
"They learn about the importance of being a citizen," Eitreim said.
The JA Finance Park events are similar, but with slightly older kids. They're thinking about things like a credit score, paying for insurance, paying for childcare, having enough money left over to afford housing and more.
- It's also a safe place to mess things up, Eitreim noted. Sometimes, a student will spend all of their money on a fancy car and realize they don't have enough to pay for rent or their mortgage. Other times, they complain about things like how expensive childcare is (relatable content).
Within the event, they're able to make mistakes and learn from them without facing real-world consequences.
How can I support this work?
These events require 20 volunteers per day, which means as this program scales up next spring, there will be a need for hundreds of volunteers, Eitreim said. Learn more about how to volunteer here.
And if you want to see these BizTown or Finance Park events at your school, you can request more information here.
