Teaching financial literacy: junior Achievement of Alaska cornerstone.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: FINANCIAL SERVICES: SIDEBAR

The importance of financial literacy for youth may be slowly creeping into the minds of parents, educators and the business community, but for Junior Achievement of Alaska it is a cornerstone of its program and a concern that drives much of what it does.

Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed by providing in-school and after-school programs for students focusing on three key content areas: work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

Today, state chapters reach 4.2 million students nationally, with an additional 4.3 million students served by operations in 118 other countries worldwide.

Educating and inspiring youth to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives is the organization's purpose--based on the national model--and ensuring that every youth in Alaska has the fundamental understanding of the free enterprise system is its mission.

But when it comes right down to it, what this means to Alaskan youth is: "We're going to make sure you know what money is, how it's used, and how to get it," according to the organization's platform.

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UNIVERSAL CONCEPT

"Financial literacy is a universal concept no matter where you're growing up," says Jan Craig, senior program manager for Junior Achievement of Alaska. "Quality of life is a concern to young people, but they need guidance to get there. It takes a community to raise a child."

In Alaska especially, where different cultural influences and regional economies play a critical role in developing children's ideas about money and their future, it is important to make sure that statewide youth share standard, accepted ideas about financial literacy and what it means to be work ready so they are prepared for future opportunities.

This is especially important in a state where many households cannot rely on a cash economy only, but instead make ends meet with a mix of cash, subsistence...