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closeStudents learn about hard work during Junior Achievement
Vaughn, Evergreen take students to Biz Town in Auburn
Hugh McMillan
Special to the Gateway
“Junior Achievement” didn’t mean a thing to me — until last month during ride in a school bus filled with Vaughn Elementary fifth-graders to the YMCA in Auburn. We joined a bus full of Evergreen Elementary students and entered “Biz Town.”
“Biz Town is a fifth-grade micro-society that affords kids a glimpse into real-world work,” Evergreen teacher Denise Ohlson said. “We like it because it works with an economy. In today’s financial crisis, ‘financial literacy’ is a term used for education. Biz Town addresses financial literacy and actively engages kids in an economy.”
“Kids have to know so much more nowadays, and we want to teach/learn as much as we can,” colleague Jim Inglebritson added.
Vaughn teacher Doug Smith said he and fellow teachers Katharine Crowell and Carolyn Russell taught the Junior Achievement curriculum to students.
It included “how to write checks, price goods, run a business, understand what utilities, wages, supplies and rent are, the importance of taxes, interest, how an economy works, all culminating in a visit to JA Biztown, where students were assigned a business that has a CEO, CFO and workers,” Smith said. “They had to figure out how much they need to operate the business and borrow from the bank. The bank charges interest. They pay for supplies, utilities and wages, and sell items they have priced or provide services.”
When they’re finished, Smith said the students hope to pay off their loan, including interest, and have money left over as profit.
“This is a high-energy experience,” he said.
Understatement!
The kids were charged, a blur of energetic activity, and deadly serious about what they were doing.
“The best part was, for a day, I got to be an adult,” Vaughn’s Alexis Beckdol said. “The challenging part was that I had to go around and collect checks from businesses.”
“The most challenging part was on the computer,” classmate Travis Baker added.
Brennen Ebert “learned how to write a check, deposit a check, be a boss and liked how realistic JA was.”
Alexsis Bennett learned “it is very hard to work as a worker.”
“I learned how a real job is,” Austyn Thompson said. “I have never been so grateful for food in my life.”
Kaila Edward “learned to run a business with bills, pay checks and a bank.”
Christian Catterall “liked having to run my own business.”
To David Maniatopoulos, “JA was like a math test, but you can take your time. You worked with people you don’t know and become friends.”
Kobe Frederick “liked to be a manager.”
Emmy Krist “liked working with different people.”
Evan Collins “liked having my own computer to use,” and learned “being in business is hard.”
Evergreen’s Paul Gregory found that “being a teller is hard work.”
Kevin Koch agreed, adding, “a teller has to go fast.”
Anthony Robertson found selling newspapers to be hard work, and “the CEO and the CFO work harder than us.”
“Being an editor isn’t about fun; it’s hard work,” Kayla Hunsaker learned. “You have to be a quick typer.”
To Bailey LaLonde, “making a newspaper isn’t easy. There’s a deadline for everything.”
Emily Dugan found being a CEO to be hard; “everybody is asking you to sign something at the same time,” she said. “It’s hard to get the newspaper out on time.”
Tabitha Rhodes learned about being a grown-up and “how hard you have to work to get a paycheck.”
“I know what an adult feels like when they are tired,” Tereza Burnett said.
Thomas Lancaster “learned how to sign paychecks,” and Philleena Lange found being assistant manager at Chase Bank to be hard.
“You have to do other employees’ jobs when they are gone,” Lange said.
Evan Smith found that “you never get time to get your work done; CEOs never finish their work.”
Jasmine Aube found, “like the real world, on (my) break, everything good to buy was gone.”
Chloe Froehlich agreed, adding, “I enjoyed listening to the speeches.”
To Rena Carlson, “if you need something done on time, you might have to work through your break.”
Alyssa Carbone got “frustrated a lot when things aren’t going the way they’re supposed to (and you) work with people who annoy you all the time.”
James Patarozzi liked shopping and buying things with money “you get from working.”
Jeremy McNulty learned to cooperate with people and to work on computers.
Taylor Tang’s favorite was “the bus ride, because work is hard and the bus is easy.”
To Taelor Sheats, the best part was “paying off taxes, bills and loans.”
“Being the CFO is like feeling trusted to take care of the money and working at Best Buy,” said Drew Ramsey.
“My favorite part was banking,” said Isaac Marshall. “I liked looking at the money.”
Annabelle Murdock liked “learning how to handle a job and responsibilities.”
Trevor Nelson found being a leasing agent to be hard.
“You go around getting rental agreements signed,” Nelson said.
Gabe Armijo added, “It’s hard to be a CFO; (you) had to do everything fast.”
“There’s so much to do that you are running around like crazy,” Mikayla Hoover said.
Mitchell Nelson “liked delivering packages at UPS.”
Shelby Robins “got to face her fear and actually be on TV, talking about the weather and interviewing people.”
“You have to pass out supplies to people really fast at UPS,” added Madison Sokalski, who “liked printing papers and putting them in the bins.”
Sabrina Buterac learned “when you are hungry, you just have to wait.”
Holly Lake “liked being busy on the computer, paying bills and depositing slips.”
Nicole Dinsmore said, “Now when my parents say they’re tired because they had a busy day at work, I’ll understand.”
Angela Biddle learned “never let the customer leave when they give you the check; you need to check if they have enough money.”
Tiffany McNulty, sales manager at IKEA, learned, “Biz Town is for children like us to help children hold down jobs.”
Brianna Martin liked speaking into a microphone and thought, “Biz Town was Awesome!”
To Nathan Thomas, “being a grown-up and having a job is really hard work.”
Sunny Moberg “liked taking pictures for Business Journal.”
Martin Torres learned, “you have to pay a lot of bills.”
“Every time I thought I was done, they’d bring more paperwork to put in the computer,” Megan Judt said.
“Being CEO of a popular business, you don’t get a chance to do one thing at a time; instead, you do four or five,” Kayla West said.
“I really don’t want to go to Biz Town again; it’s too much work,” said Murphy Kahuhu-Guy.
But Madison Hansen loved going to Biz Town.
“As CEO of Chase, all work was fun but overwhelming,” Hansen said. “I felt so empowered.”
Jaime Jackson’s favorite: “The opportunity to experience everyday work and to know why my mom and dad are always tired.”
Shelby Lawrence liked “being CEO and being done with everything except the checklist.”
To know more about Junior Achievement, visit www.jawashington.org.