Fifth-grade students at Bryant Woods Elementary School will soon be managing a restaurant, operating a bank, making two payrolls and electing a mayor, thanks to a $2,400 matching project grant from The Columbia Foundation to Junior Achievement of Central Maryland.
Through the JA BizTown program, the students will get the “real life” experiences of obtaining a job and running a business, giving them a head-start on some of the basic skills that successful job seeker and job keepers need. More importantly, they learn to connect what they’re studying in school to what happens after they leave school.
Before going to BizTown, a 10,000-square foot facility in Owings Mills and one of only 28 globally, the fifth graders will receive 30 hours of instruction from one of their teachers. JA trains the teacher and provides a curriculum and materials correlated with Maryland State Department of Education standards. Students learn the financial concepts of how to start and maintain a business, such as taking out a bank or venture capital loan, balancing a checkbook and budgeting for everything from personnel to the cost of electricity. They discuss what it means to be part of a community, how to be a good citizen and the responsibilities of elected officials.
They then create a resume and interview for one of the 120 different jobs represented at BizTown. Once there, they spend eight hours serving their customers, promoting their companies, making two payrolls and paying off their business loans. Easier said than done, as we all know! Helping them along the way are 20 successful business people who volunteer as mentors for the day.
The JA BizTown program has the support of many businesses. Best Buy, Northrop Grumman, UPS and other national firms have storefronts at BizTown and provide the uniforms, paperwork and materials to make an authentic working experience at all levels. Local companies include The Strata Group, offering real estate services and the Baltimore Business Journal which sponsors the town’s newspaper. The Baltimore Ravens are involved with the broadcast center. As JoAnn Goldberger, Senior Development Director for JA of Central Maryland says, “JA blends the business and educational communities. We always leverage grant funds with the businesses in each county where we operate.”
Research has shown that fifth grade is a turning point in development when children start thinking about their future and what they want to do. The JA BizTown program exposes them to a variety of careers they might otherwise not consider, and demonstrates how their class work can influence their choices.
Over the past ten years, the U.S. has grown by over 25 million people, according to the Bureau of the Census, yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports only 400,000 new jobs have been created. The Columbia Foundation is glad to support a program that gives our county’s students a step-up in preparing for a successful future.