Thinking back to her school days, Amy Meyer said she didn’t learn about managing a household financially until she took a high school elective class. She understands curricula may have changed since then, but this financial literacy experience influenced her to get involved in a program she saw working in the finance field: Junior Achievement.
“It kind of excited me to think about some of the ideas they’re starting to introduce a little bit sooner than, you know, what my experience was as a kid,” Meyer said.
The Junior Achievement (JA) program is a K-12 program focused on providing youth with financial literacy lessons, building one on top of the other.
Upon moving to the area in 2019, Amy and her husband Josh asked about what it would take to start a JA program at Kimball. Amy had volunteered with this program prior to the move, doing most of that work in Sauk Rapids. The pandemic years threw a wrench in these Kimball program plans but, after a couple of years of conversation, they got the program into the school.
Kimball program
Since starting JA three school years ago at Kimball, they have specialized it to kindergarten through fifth grade. This year, Amy and several other volunteers have so far provided the program to first, third, and fifth grade. They met with each classroom for 30 minutes once per week over five weeks, finishing in late February. They are providing a program to fourth-graders in early April.
The more activity-based program, Amy explained, layers the lessons by year. Volunteers get the training for these lessons, and JA provides the supplies and curriculum book for these lessons. Many of these lessons have a game attached to it.
In kindergarten, the focus is on the individual, focusing on need versus want, and includes more story time.
“We go to jobs because we earn money,” Amy said when explaining the kindergarten lessons. “When you earn money, do you spend that on a need first? Do you spend that on a want first?”
In first grade, the lessons shift to the family – the adults and siblings in the students’ lives – and how that fits within the financial literacy components. It focuses more on the family’s needs and wants.
Second grade moves to communities, going beyond a student’s immediate world. At this point, they begin talking about businesses, and how money flows within the community or a direct neighborhood.
In this grade (second), they also teach the concept of what it means to create a sellable product. For example, students did an activity where they made paper pizzas, having to make sure the stickers they were placing on their pizzas weren’t overlapping or falling off the edge.
“That’s how you assess to whether or not it’s a product that’s actually sellable. You put the right ingredients into it, for example,” Amy said. “If you don’t put the right ingredients to it, who’s going to buy something that doesn’t taste good, right?”
The third-grade unit expands to a city focus, highlighting the governmental financial pieces. They learn about the leaders of the city, taxes, and how money flows through taxes and businesses. They also learn how to write checks and talk about entrepreneurs at this level.
“Kimball, we’ve got a lot of entrepreneurs. We’ve got a lot of family-owned businesses,” Amy said. “So that’s always fun to talk about, because there’s always somebody in the classroom that’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, we own …,’ or ‘My grandpa started,’ or whatever it might be.”
In fourth grade, the focus shifts to business and money movement within the region, focused on the state or a multiple-state area. They talk about how certain areas develop certain products to sell, and purchase certain products that come from other areas.
In fifth grade, the students learn about their nation and globe.
“That’s when they start to talk a little bit more about –supply, demand, global imports and exports,” Amy said, “and how kind of money moves throughout that process.”
Kimball Elementary Principal Joel Timmerman sees this program as providing all students the opportunity to develop an understanding of economic literacy: how to “make, save and spend money in the community,” he said, and what impact the economy has on daily lives.
“The lessons are focused and age-appropriate,” Timmerman said, “in the manner that they allow students of all ages to participate in hands-on, thought-provoking scenarios that occur every day in our community.”
By program’s end, students earn a certificate of achievement and a dollar coin, the latter specialized to the Kimball program and donated by BankVista based out of Sartell.
To learn more about this program, visit the following link jausa.ja.org/programs/index?gradeLevel=elementary.
Program funding
The program comes with a per class cost estimate and, as Amy highlighted, the Kimball program isn’t actually fully funded yet. BankVista, Amy’s employer, which has supported JA financially for some time, pays for about two classrooms in Kimball, and Amy and her husband two other classrooms. The remainder of the funds come from the general fundraising JA does within the Greater St. Cloud area, she explained.
In the first year of the program, they did get a direct donation from Miller Auto to the Kimball program specifically. Amy and Josh did a few meat raffles to raise funds for that first year too. They had enough funding at that time to cover half of the classrooms, influencing JA to give the okay to introduce the program to Kimball.
“Unfortunately, we’re not covering half anymore quite yet,” Amy said. “But, you know, that’s the hope is to try and keep gaining some local momentum; or maybe we’ll have some local businesses that have interest in doing some sponsorships for classrooms.”
Kimball Elementary Principal Joel Timmerman highlighted how integral Amy and Josh have been to making this program a success at Kimball.
“Without Amy and Josh Meyer dedicating so much personal time to implementing JA at Kimball, we would not be able to experience the activities,” Timmerman said via email. “They both invest a great deal of time working with our students, looking for volunteers to teach, and looking for financial resources to support JA. Bank Vista has been a great supporter by allowing for time and financial support in the school.”
Timmerman also highlighted how the well for this program funding will eventually run dry.
“We will be looking for continued support in the future,” Timmerman said via email.
Personal connection
Timmerman sees the connection for this program is building.
“JA also builds a connection with the community by having volunteers teach the lessons and spend time in the school directly with the students,” Timmerman said via email. “There is a mutual respect between the community and school when both parties are vested in a program such as JA.”
When asked what she enjoys about providing this program, Amy highlighted her career journey. She went to school to become an elementary teacher, but eventually decided to switch paths.
“I love teachers and think they have one of the hardest jobs in the room, yet the most rewarding,” Amy said via email. “They are teaching the future leaders of our businesses and communities. At the time I was trying to figure out my own career path, [and] I doubted if I had what it takes to make that kind of an impact on our future generations.”
Instead, she pursued the accounting path, working at a bank during those college years. Math and finance are her strong suits, she added. Her work in finance eventually introduced her to the JA program.
“I am introverted, so the idea of getting in front of a classroom with so many eyes on you was nerve-wracking,” Amy said via email about her career path switch. “The irony is the path I chose eventually led to frequently presenting to rooms full of people.”
Now, she’s not only presenting as part of committee and board meetings, but also classrooms.
“I found that it just really spoke to me, and that the initial want that I had, you know, as a kid, I was thinking I wanted to be a teacher,” Amy said. “It’s pretty neat to be in front of kids and have their whole attention, and to be able to teach them something. It’s very rewarding.”
Being in the financial space, she has seen many different financial situations, and now gets to pass on that knowledge to youth.
“To teach some of those more financial literacy points, like the check-writing and the difference in the debit and credit card, you know, start allowing them to hear those types of things a little bit younger,” Amy said. “So hopefully, as they get older and they have to start making their own financial decisions, maybe some of it, you know, sinks in a little bit.”