Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa has received a $92,000 grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation to support local youth financial literacy programs.
According to a release, the grant will support hands-on learning programs that teach students foundational money management skills like earning, saving, budgeting, spending wisely, and investing, in addition to sponsoring the organization’s capstone program, JA BizTown Mobile.
Launched in spring 2023, JA BizTown Mobile provides school districts access to an immersive financial literacy and work and career readiness educational program that allows students to learn about the circular flow of the economy by assuming roles in businesses found in a simulated pop-up mobile economy.
Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa is the first of the more than 100 Junior Achievement offices throughout the United States to offer JA BizTown in a mobile format, bringing the mobile city infrastructure to local schools to reduce barriers of transportation.
“As the Bank of Doing, we want to find ways to help people build savings and reduce debt, and that aligns perfectly with the mission of Junior of Achievement,” said Laura Howe, branch banking region executive for Wells Fargo. “Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa has pioneered a new financial education program that is showing promising results.”
More than 1,600 Eastern Iowa students in grades fifth and sixth have participated in JA BizTown Mobile since its launch. In addition to its most recent grant, Wells Fargo joined MidAmerican Energy to fund the creation of JA BizTown Mobile last year.
“JA BizTown is an immersive learning experience that gives students the opportunity to learn by doing, instead of just listening,” said Katie Langrehr, experiential learning director for Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa. “During JA BizTown, students can take their classroom learning into a controlled environment where they can make mistakes, learn, and interact with volunteers to see how their ‘first day on the job’ is relatable to real-world experiences they may have in years to come. By mobilizing this experience, Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa has made it accessible to all students within our footprint, and it allows us to pull from different volunteer pools that truly reflect the students in each of our areas. It is important that we are demonstrating to future generations, early and often, the importance of the circular flow of the economy, and that we are preparing them for the world of work that they will enter.”
