The Future of Business

JA BizTown helps grade schoolers realize their grown-up potential

Written By Rachel Williford
Photos by Mike Mertes

“Skill to do comes of doing.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s 9:30 a.m., and JA BizTown is open for business. The Wells Fargo bank teller fires up her computer, the radio station DJ selects the music and advertisements for the morning show, the Cox Communications camera crew prepares for news broadcasts and interviews, and the mayor is hard at work overseeing the success of the entire town. It may seem like an ordinary morning in a typical bustling metropolis, but this well-oiled business machine has a catch: it’s run entirely by fifth graders.

The newly redesigned JA BizTown in Tempe opened its doors to this year’s first group of students on September 17. The fifth graders, dressed in business attire, attended a town meeting and then took their places in the indoor mini city. BizTown is set up like an indoor mall, with private and public businesses built within cubicles and office spaces set up with working equipment, items for purchase, bank deposit slips and everything thing it takes to run a workplace. The goal for the four-and-a-half-hour day is to pay off a small business loan through a successfully run company within the town, but what the students take away from the experience is designed to impact them forever.

“This is not just paper and pencil work,” said Nancy Ganz, a teacher at Kiva Elementary whose students were buzzing around BizTown with contagious energy on a Monday morning. “They learn what it takes to apply for loans; they understand interest rates. They are taught to be successful and profitable while applying intelligence and work ethics. It’s really delightful to watch.”

Several of the businesses within the center, such as the Cox Communications television station, are sponsored by real companies. They display authentic logos and the actual marketplace appearance of the sponsor. As in the case of the TV and radio studios, surrounding “businesses” must purchase advertising in the form of commercials and on-air spots in order to entice off-the-clock spenders to buy their product or services (the children all get a break from working to spend what they’ve earned). Sprint cellular phones, handmade jewelry, sports apparel and more are available for purchase at the surrounding businesses, all manned by classmates. Three dollars buys students a three-minute trip around the world in an American Airlines plane, complete with windows and authentic airlplane seats – the trip whisks the students away to three major countries on a big-screened flat-panel television at the cab of the plane. Not a bad deal for three dollars.

Ben, a fifth grader at Kiva Elementary, is learning a lot from his day at BizTown. As CEO of the “Glues to the News” Newspaper, he’s been working hard typing up stories and meeting deadlines. “I’ve learned that hard work doesn’t always pay off, because I’m definitely working a lot,” he said, laughing. How much does one make as a CEO in BizTown? “$9 an hour,” Ben said. “And I plan to spend it all.”

Experiences like these are made possible by Junior Achievement, a worldwide organization that has been dedicated to teaching children that they can impact the world around them as individuals, workers and consumers since 1916. Junior Achievement works to broaden students’ horizons so that they are encouraged to dream big when they explore the possibilities for their futures. Each child who enters the program at JA BizTown is given the understanding of what it means to “work” in a grown-up environment, and the end result enforces the relationship between education and future goals as well as the importance of being a contributing citizen and a good employee. The program gets children excited about their potential careers while meeting the Essential Academic Learning Requirements.

Before visiting JA BizTown, students complete an in-class curriculum program where they learn basic economic principles. The curriculum is 25 hours long, and the students are engaged with their teacher in specific lessons for at least an hour a day, plus homework assignments. The lessons focus on business principles, career exploration, banking procedures, business decisions and real-world vocabulary. The goal is to allow students to relate economic terms to the business world while they are running the interactive city. Students must demonstrate business skills, participate in pre-visit job interviews for the position they are interested in (not all find that they are qualified for their desired position), learn about their new workplace, and get to know the specific steps it takes to work within or run a successful business.

“We believe that if you can change an attitude, you can change a life,” said Joyce Richards, president of Junior Achievement Arizona, Inc. “Students who don’t normally do well in school excel here, showing leadership skills and taking an interest in activities.” Teachers who have had experience with the program agree. “Children of all levels and abilities are learning high-quality lessons that really level the playing field,” explained Nancy Ganz. “They aren’t just learning to balance a check book – they are being taught community responsibility.” This kind of responsibility is what makes the program so important to Joyce Richards. “If a child learns from this program and grows up to be a productive member of society, it impacts his future spouse and his children, as well.”

Parents wishing to involve their children in the JA BizTown program must recommend the curriculum to their students’ schools, as the program cannot be applied for individually. More than 71,000 Arizona students will be engaged in JA programs this year. The average cost of program is $36 per student.

Junior Achievement of Arizona, Inc.
636 W. Southern Avenue, Tempe
480.219.0216
www.jaaz.org