Students Finance their Futures

Junior Achievement has multiple programs to help prepare students for the future such as the Finance Park and Biztown, which some students traveled to in sixth grade. Photo courtesy of Junior Achievement.

Junior Achievement has multiple programs to help prepare students for the future such as the Finance Park and Biztown, which some students traveled to in sixth grade. Photo courtesy of Junior Achievement.

By Karly Matthews, Editor-in-Chief
May 3, 2015

To test out their classroom knowledge from this semester, twelve finance students traveled to the Junior Achievement Finance Park in York, PA on Friday, April 24.

Finance, a half-year course, is offered as an elective for students who want to learn how to manage money or go into business. Though the course is normally taught by business education teacher Kellin McCullough, substitute Jesse Krotzer is teaching the class this semester because McCullough is on maternity leave. For the past few years, McCullough’s classes have taken this field trip.

Junior Joey McDonnell chose to participate in the trip to learn more about finance.

Twelve students traveled to the Junior Achievement Finance Park. Photo courtesy of Junior Achievement.
Twelve students traveled to the Junior Achievement Finance Park. Photo courtesy of Junior Achievement.

“I learned how to budget,” said McDonnell. “We did games, and we did a scenario where you were given a character, and you had to budget off that character.”

Throughout the trip, students participated in multiple money management activities such as receiving a yearly salary and having to budget accordingly. Also, students looked at credit scores and other data to make the situation even more realistic.

Krotzer noticed that this was an eye-opening experience for many students.

“I think [students] gained a realization that it costs a lot of money to live,” said Krotzer. “It’s not all going to be free and easy.”

Leading up to the trip, the class recently concluded a budgeting unit, so students had some basic knowledge of what it was like to manage money. Still, the field trip furthered their understanding of realistic personal finances.

Junior Maddie McGowan decided to go on the field trip because it sounded like an interesting experience.

“It really helped me with budgeting and planning for my future,” said McGowan. “… You basically had to work with your scenario and your credit score and make a budget with that.”

Junior Achievement describes the Finance Park curriculum on its website. Photo courtesy of Junior Achievement.
Junior Achievement describes the Finance Park curriculum on its website. Photo courtesy of Junior Achievement.

Throughout the course of activities, students were thrown obstacles that they had to deal with, and some ultimately had to change their budgets just like real-life households have to do in some situations.

“It really gets you thinking about the future and how to prepare…,” said McGowan. “If things don’t go your way, … you can still work with what you have.”

Since the finance course is all about preparing student monetarily for the future, this field trip assisted students in their understanding of realistic budgeting.