JA BizTown

October 16, 2011

JA BizTown

I had the privilege of helping with JA BizTown this year! When I signed up, I had NO IDEA what I was signing up for! I was a little nervous after going to the required training meeting. I wondered if I was qualified to help. I didn't quite feel smart enough! ;)

JA Biztown is put on by the Junior Achievement Assoc. Biztown is set up at the JA Achievement building. Kids go there for this incredible learning experience. All of the 5th graders at our schools get to participate. It is something everyone looks forward to! In a nutshell, they act like business men and women for a day and "work" jobs for an entire day. They are assigned their jobs a couple of weeks prior to their day at BizTown. They learn about their jobs and prepare for them. Each child earns 2 paychecks that day (in Biztown money, of course!). They are responsible for managing their money and making deposits/withdrawals at the bank.

Here are a few pics of Biztown. I had no idea what to expect! I pictured folded tables set up with card board boxes and pretend computers. OH NO! This was a real mock city with real mock businesses! It was also the cleanest little "town" I had ever seen!

This is when the town was quiet before the kids arrived.

Judd's office!

My office!

Arby's (Where everyone went for their lunch breaks)!

My job as a volunteer was to oversee City Hall. Yikes! Who knew I would be in charge of the Mayor that day! ;) I was responsible for 6 kids. I helped them all learn how to manage their money, balance their check books, open savings accounts, make deposits/withdrawals and helped them each to understand their personal job requirements for that day. It was lots of fun and I had a great group of kids! It was a very busy, stressful day! Lets just say, I was exhausted by the end of the day! I would do it again in a heart beat, though! So much fun!

Here is my group at work.

This is Jake. He was the treasurer of City Hall. His job included doing payroll (printing and dispersing the "employee's" paychecks in our group). He also recorded the utility bill and property tax payments that came in that day from other companies. His job also required him to pay various bills owed by City Hall. He was one busy boy! He was so tired by the end of the day! He couldn't believe how many bills kept coming in for him to pay! Ha!

This is the Biztown Mayor, Cloe. Cloe was an outstanding Mayor! Her responsibilities were endless! Not only did she have to give the opening and closing speeches to Biztown that day. She also had to encourage everyone to vote during their lunch breaks, nominate individuals for citizen's of the day, recognize other hard workers in the community and sign the paychecks for our group. Lots of people came to her for information during the day. She never stopped!

Judd stopped by during his lunch break to vote! I loved seeing him! :)

This is Eden. Another very hard worker in my group! Eden, was an auditor for the day. She worked hard all day sending out property tax bills and then collecting them as well. She also compared numbers from previous days. Her job was all about the numbers and she handled it very well!

This is one of the town hall meetings. That's Mayor Chloe up there leading the meeting!

We had 3 more kids with us at City Hall. I hate I didn't get pictures of them. Noah and Marissa were out checking meter readings and Alec was out doing inspections.

Judd worked at Tulsa Tech for the day! He was a web designer! His teacher could not have picked a more perfect job for him! It was right up his ally! I could see him across the "street" from us, so I would peek in on him every once in a while.

Here he is hard at work!