Combining real world businesses with financial literacy is one of the ways Richmond County and Columbia County schools are guiding middle schoolers towards career readiness.
The Junior Achievement of Georgia opened up its sixth discovery center location in the state on Jan. 12. The 30,000 square foot location at 4375 Riverwatch Parkway features 18 national and local storefronts to create an immersive experience for students.
“It’s really important for us because we want our programming to be authentic and realistic for the kids. However, it is important for them because I think everyone is thinking now, what is the work force going to look like and what does it look like now and what will it look like in 20 years?” said Ashley Whitaker, director of development at JA of Georgia. “And we always get that question on why are you focusing on middle school students instead of high school and it’s a good question.
“Frankly, a lot of the kids that are in high school already know what they want to do and they may already be on a pathway there. There are so many things that start happening to you when you are in high school, you are pulled in a lot of different directions so we feel like we can get them engaged in middle school and really start educating them about these opportunities, it can set them forward on a good path.”
JA of Georgia works with educators in 6th and 7th grade to discuss and teach concepts like credit scores, civics, business loans, career readiness and budgeting. Local volunteers assist students in financial literacy exercises that role play work and the real world. The facility will be able to host 15,000 students annually.
Volunteer Tina Tanner believes it’s important for students to learn these skills early and to invest in middle school students.
“I think with the youth of today, we focus so much on education and knowledge but we don’t necessarily talk about life skills,” Tanner said. “I think that for the young leadership that is going to be coming out of high school and college, it’s really important for them to know how their community works and how all the pieces come together and how all their voices can make a difference.”
An area teacher agreed.
“The earlier the exposure, the more practice they get as they go on into the real world, we don’t have cash money available,” Tabetha Synder, a sixth grade teacher at Riverside Middle School, said. “ Everything is digital so the exposure to money and real life experiences is just different to them, so if we can expose them to those marketing earlier, it will help them lifelong.
“[As they are] starting to look at careers they may be interested in and once they get to high school, they can start looking at those tracks and get that training earlier on and doing internships and joint enrollment at Augusta University here and things like that.”
A spokesman for Piedmont Augusta, one of the founding partners for the Discovery Center, said their interest was twofold.
“First of all, community outreach and community partnership and the second part would be workforce development,” said Rebecca Sylvester, director of community affairs and brand growth at Piedmont. “In terms of community outreach, Piedmont feels strongly that we should partner with our community with the organizations that have like missions and with like missions and that is not just healthcare. Its all those things that feed into healthcare like education and financial literacy and employment. All those things that keep people healthy and happy.
“I’m very excited that Junior Achievement brought this to the CSRA, brought the Discovery Center to the CSRA. I think that it’s something that was greatly needed and I think it’s one of the coolest things that I’ve been a part of and I think it will show dividends to our community for a long time to come.”