JA BizTown: A City Run by Fifth Graders
Learning makes its greatest impact when it engages every neuron in the body. The lessons we learn through struggling, realizing, celebrating, creating, and just plain doing are those that shape the way we see and face the future. Junior Achievement (JA), a national nonprofit organization committed to educating students about entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and workforce readiness knows this full well. JA uses the power of experiential learning to shape the lives of elementary school children and fuel their excitement for learning.
Junior Achievement of Oregon and SW Washington is located in Portland, and almost 6,000 students in 249 classrooms from SW Washington will participate in JA programs during the 2015-2016 school year. Public and private elementary schools in the Vancouver area (including Vancouver Public Schools and Evergreen School District) incorporate JA BizTown, one particularly exciting JA program, into their curriculum, typically around fifth grade. Kate Barker, the principal of Cherry Park Elementary in Portland, shares, “I’ve been in education for 25 years, and this is my most favorite field trip! It is such a rich experience for our students and school to participate in. With 78 percent poverty and 26 different languages represented among our students, the chance for these kids to have these experiences, and for us to show them the possibilities for their future, is just incredible.”
To read more, pick up a copy of the January 2016 issue at any of these locations, or view the digital archive copy here.
