Young Students Get College Experience at Junior Achievement

The mayor is busy preparing his budget at City Hall. The CFO of Merritt Athletic Club is printing out paystubs and the neighborhood Papa Johns is preparing for lunch hour.

While it sounds like the activities of any major city, all the businesspeople and public officials are students from The Banner School of Frederick. On Thursday, students from fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade spent their mornings at in Owings Mills learning about business principles, financial literacy, student loans and running businesses.

“You need education to progress in a real life scenario,” said Josh Chumley, a campus director with the University of Phoenix.

The university marked the start of a new partnership with Junior Achievement Thursday morning with the ribbon cutting of their university shop, where students can learn about the cost of higher education, student loans and scholarships and act as academic advisors to help other students pick a degree.

The shop is part of Junior Achievement’s JA BizTown, a 10,000 square-foot mini-city where students run businesses such as Bank of America, Northrop Grumman, CareFirst, Toyota Financial Services, UPS, Best Buy and Papa Johns. There were also offices for city hall, a radio station and the Baltimore Business Journal.

“It means the continuation of allowing students to understand the whole economy and how education plays into it,” said Jennifer Bodensiek, president of Junior Achievement.

And the students do take the lessons to heart.

“I worked two years at the Papa Johns. I was CEO and manager,” said sixth-grader Victoria Smith. “It’s a lot of responsibility. You can’t fool around.”

Before arriving on Thursday, the students had applied for jobs, campaigned for political positions and voted in elections.

Mayor Ben Moreno, a sixth-grader, was budgeting in his office with parent volunteer Mary Beth McKane. To run for office, he had to read a speech to fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.

“I wanted to make businesses successful and make sure each citizen had health care,” he said.

Michael Pellet, one of the parent volunteers and a business owner, said he thinks all the principles the students are learning are valuable life skills.

“Business concepts [are] usable in every context,” he said.

The Maryland Association of CPAs recently partnered with Junior Achievement to provide financial literacy for its program participants. The CPA group will urge its members to volunteer at the organization.

The University of Phoenix and its parent company, the Apollo Group, are also offering 15 full scholarships to Junior Achievement staff members, teachers and volunteers looking to earn undergraduate or master’s degrees. Scholarship applications are due by April 12. The winners will be announced May 24. For applications, visit http://www.phoenix.edu/i-scholarships or contact dabdallah@ja.org for more information.