Apr 01, 2018
Volunteers share tips with local students
Business leaders, educators and other volunteers partner with the local schools to deliver classroom-based programs to students in kindergarten through grade 12.
Yes, you read that right—even kindergarten students get lessons in financial management.
“A lot of what young people need to know should start at home, but a lot of parents don’t know how to manage their own money, so they’re not gonna share that with their children,” explained Kathleen McNeil, district manager of Junior Achievement of Bakersfield. “We tell them to get a good education and a good job, but if we’re not telling them how to manage the money they are making from that job, it could be for naught.”
Springtime is when the programs gear up, with JA Economics for Success at Freedom Middle School and JA Personal Finance at South High School.
Each program is led by trained volunteers from the business community.
“At the middle school and high school levels, we do what we call traditional delivery. A businessperson goes into the classroom and provides instruction on the topics,” McNeil explained.
When April rolls around with Financial Literacy Month, registration gets underway for JA’s sixth annual Stock Market Challenge held in October at CSUB.
The signature fundraising event is a virtual investment competition for Kern County middle and high school students, offered at no charge to students.
“It’s an amazing event,” McNeil said. We recruit instructors from middle and high schools. It primarily is business or economics teachers. We’ll partner with a teacher and usually what happens is they’ll bring their entire class with four or five students per team.
“The first half of the day is “Investing 101” and they get an overview of the stock market—why it exists, why it operates, how it benefits businesses and shareholders.”
McNeil said the afternoon is set up like a trading floor. “The students strategize. It’s very competitive,” she said.
Teams that finish with the highest portfolio net worth are deemed the stock market champion.
But the learning isn’t limited to secondary students. In May, JA Day will be held at Hort and Stella Hills. Each classroom is matched with a trained volunteer to deliver five back-to-back lessons and activities during the first half of the school day.
“We’re teaching kids about jobs, business and money,” McNeil said.
And even the littlest learners can benefit.
“In first grade, they learn the difference between needs and wants,” she explained. “We are very conditioned to spend. You think of money, you think ‘What am I gonna buy?’ Let’s rethink that.”
Money management is really not a difficult concept to teach if you make it relatable.
“I tell the kids, ‘What do you think when you hear about a movie star or professional athlete that says they’re broke?’ You think they have millions of dollars, how can that be? But whether you have a million or a hundred dollars, if you spend it all, you’re broke.”
McNeil said teaching the basics at a young age is critical for a variety of reasons.
“We met with Cal State-Bakersfield... the powers that be that build prisons look at third grade math scores to determine how many prisons to build,” she said. “Up to third grade, you are learning to read. When you get to third grade, you are reading to learn. We have to reach them young. High school is too late.”
McNeil said the learning is sequential. “Each year, it’s building on what they learned the previous year. Our goal is to have a long-term relationship with each school site.”
Not only do the students reap the rewards, so do the volunteers.
“It’s an opportunity for our volunteers to be a mentor and a role model in the classroom and share their work,” McNeil explained.
“We always need volunteers,” McNeil said. For more information on Junior Achievement, visit www.jabakersfield.org. “The work we do is really important. Our volunteers are valuable. It’s not just going in and reading a storybook,” McNeil said.
