Driving Financial Education in Houston
Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas recently announced that Capital One Financial Corporation provided the organization with a permanent Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park™ valued at over $300,000 for middle grades and high school students participating in Junior Achievement programs.
The facility, a mobile interactive classroom where local students learn basic money management skills, will be designated specifically for metropolitan Houston, Beaumont and other communities served by Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas. Because it is mobile, the unit can travel to different parts of the region year-round, enabling it to be stationed close to the schools it will serve.
The Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park™ program begins with four weeks of intensive in-classroom financial education lessons developed by Junior Achievement. Students then have the opportunity to put their newly learned money management skills to the test. This innovative learning environment, called Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park™, houses a mock city where students can experience the challenges of making real-life decisions about their finances.
While at Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park™, the students are assigned fictional jobs, incomes, families and expenses. They are then expected to develop and to manage their own individual budgets. Students are faced with choices about housing, transportation, savings, furnishings, investments, food, entertainment, phone, cable, and charitable contributions — all of the decisions they will ultimately make upon entering adulthood.
For more information, visit Houston.ja.org.