Junior Achievement programs in Alaska schools: teaching financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and work-readiness.

• Author: Freeman, Louise
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Junior Achievement Alaska

Remember the old game Life popular in the 1960s? Now, instead of a game board, imagine a computer screen in front of which sits a junior high school student. She creates an avatar--a fictional character--for herself. She decides to be a single parent of one child. This single parent--call her Sheila--is randomly assigned a job as a teacher, with an annual income of $48,000.

Over the course of six weekly sessions, the teenager will steer Sheila through a series of real-world scenarios. She will establish a household budget, apply for a credit card, and research and purchase health and homeowner's insurance. Suddenly, Sheila's work hours are cut and she must recalculate her budget. Can she still afford that new car she has had her eye on?

Such an imaginary scenario is part of a Junior Achievement (JA) virtual learning experience called Virtual Finance Park, new to Alaska in the 20142015 school year. Junior Achievement is a worldwide organization that educates students K-12 in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and work-readiness. All JA programs are free and are led by volunteers from the business community.

Statewide Program Plans

JA Alaska offers programs in 103 schools in forty-three communities throughout the state. Virtual Finance Park, an innovative program that focuses on personal financial planning, is being piloted at five schools in Anchorage this school year.

Now in thirty different JA markets throughout the United States, Virtual Finance Park is designed for use by students in grades five through nine. Part of the pilot effort in Anchorage is deciding which grade to focus on.

"Our strategy, because we have limited resources, will be to pick one grade level, and our goal is to reach all students in that grade level in the Anchorage School District within two years," says Flora Teo, president of JA Alaska. "We hope to offer it statewide within five years."

JA Alaska is a nonprofit organization that gets half of its revenue from special events and half from grants and corporate sponsorship. "We need feedback from corporate sponsors if there is interest in supporting a program like Virtual Finance Park," Teo says.

Experiential Learning

JA Alaska also offers an experiential learning experience called the Company Program. Starting in January 2015, JA Alaska will be launching an online version of this successful program. "We recognize the importance of a digital strategy, so we want to be able to present our materials to kids in a way...