Thousands of Middle School Students Participate in Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Par
- November 2, 2010
They may only be in middle school, but for at least one day recently area students made “real world” decisions as part of pseudo families that had a budget, bills, expenses and other responsibilities. As of October 22, 2,175 students had received curriculum and 1,737 students had attended the one-day Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park at Cortana Mall. And many more experienced the program before the doors closed at the end of October.
About 369 volunteers, of them 126 from Capital One, participated in the program. The rest were from organizations like ExxonMobil, Volunteers In Public Schools, the Louisiana State University and public high school career-tech education programs, among others.
Middle schools participating from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System included: Broadmoor Middle, Capitol Middle, Glasgow Middle, McKinley Middle Magnet, Park Forest Middle, Scotlandville Pre-Engineering Middle, Sherwood Middle, Southeast Middle, Staring Education Center, Westdale Middle and Woodlawn Middle.
The Finance Park is an innovative mobile financial education program for middle school students. The program teaches basic money management skills to nearly 3,000 local students. This unique, award-winning program begins with four weeks of intensive in-classroom financial education lessons developed by Junior Achievement. Students then have the opportunity to put their newly learned money management skills to the test in a high-tech learning lab. This innovative learning environment, called Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park, houses a mock city where students can experience the challenges of making real-life financial decisions.
"It’s a thrill to see students learn basic money management skills and put them into practice during their time at Finance Park," explained Kathy Arnes, president of Junior Achievement of Greater Baton Rouge and Acadiana. "This hands-on financial education will help students succeed now and as adults by giving them practical knowledge they will use every day.“
While at Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park, the students are assigned fictional jobs, incomes, families and expenses. They are then expected to develop and stick to appropriate budgets. Students are faced with real-life decisions about housing, furnishings, investments, food, entertainment, phone, cable, savings and charitable contributions -- all of the decisions they will ultimately make upon entering adulthood.
Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park began as a pilot in October 2006 in McLean, Va. The pilot was such a resounding success that the two organizations have since expanded the initiative to multiple markets.
The Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park offers a fun, hands-on approach to learning about very important information that they can use for the rest of their lives. “Students who visit and participate in the Finance Park curriculum gain a better understanding of basic money management and being financially responsible,” said Steve Lousteau, Capital One Bank’s Baton Rouge Market president. “Our bank associates who volunteer at Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park are able to play a key role in encouraging financial literacy and economic opportunity.”
Principal Brister in Washington, D.C., to Accept McKinley Middle School’s Second Blue Ribbon Award
On Tuesday, November 13, 2012, Principal Herman Brister (pictured, left) and the school’s Teacher of the Year, Lynn Williamson (right), were in Washington, D.C., accepting McKinley Middle Academic Magnet School’s National Blue Ribbon Award from U.S. Department of Education’s Director of National Blue Ribbon Schools Program Aba Kumi (center). The event, which recognized some 314 schools from across the United States, was held at the Omni Hotel. Click herefor story.
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