This Junior Achievement project will inspire and empower over 3,000 at-risk students in Los Angeles County to own their future economic success and stay in school. $50 provides one student with nearly 30 hours of financial education, coupled with the onsite experience of becoming an adult for a day in the JA Finance Park Facility with volunteer mentors from the community.
Staying in school and financial education are essential to success. Without them, credit can become a trap, and planning for the future is impossible. Over 40% of the students in LAUSD are droping out of school. While the recession has shown the need for financial education is acute for all people, the need is magnified in low-income communities where most young people come from homes that are struggling to make ends meet, and where a lack of mentors exist to encourage kids to stay in school.
JA Finance Park is targeted at junior/senior high school students. This five-week economics program explores personal finances and careers through rigorous in-class curriculum, and culminates in a day-long simulation at the Finance Park campus. Students arrive at JA Finance Park and are given a new identity for a day—age, career, family structure and income—they are then faced with a seemingly impossible task: develop a budget. Students quickly learn the connection between money and education.
JA Finance Park provides sound money management tools and practice. The program reinforces the concept that decisions made early in life can have long-term impacts. Students learn that the choice to stay in school, and eventually pursue a degree, has a positive impact on their income throughout their lifetimes. These concepts lead toward JA Finance Park’s key objective: to empower students with the knowledge to be able to make sound financial decisions from an early age.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
