JA Finance Park Entry Level

JA Finance Park is Junior Achievement’s capstone program for personal financial planning and career exploration. This program, comprising a curriculum and a simulation, helps students build a foundation on which they can make intelligent financial decisions that last a lifetime, including decisions related to income, expenses, savings, and credit.

This educator-led classroom curriculum culminates with a visit to JA Finance Park, a realistic on-site or mobile facility, or virtually in the classroom, where students engage with volunteers and put into practice what they’ve learned by developing a personal budget.

Following participation in the program, students will be able to:

• Identify personal interests, skills, work preferences, and values.

• Identify career interests.

• Evaluate the risks and benefits of saving and investing.

• Evaluate risk and recognize insurance as a way to minimize it.

• Define taxes, explain their purpose, and understand how they affect everyone.

• Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using credit and debit cards.

• Explain who uses a budget and why.

• Identify the components of a successful budget.

• Create a successful budget using hypothetical life situations.

JA Finance Park (Entry Level) is a part of the JA Financial Literacy Pathway and JA Work and Career Readiness Pathway and is recommended for middle and high school students (grades 7–9). A minimum of 13 lessons is offered in a traditional classroom presentation format, and a project-based learning (PBL) format is available for high school delivery. Both traditional and PBL formats provide educators a method of delivery that best meets the needs of their students. JA Finance Park (Entry Level) culminates in a hands-on budgeting simulation that is implemented either at a JA Finance Park facility, mobile unit, or virtual site.

As part of this program, JA teachers and volunteers are encouraged to use the resources available in JA Connect™ Learning Pathways, located at https://connect.ja.org/. This self-guided experience includes interactives, JA Digital Career Book™, and games and apps for student use.

JA programs support national and state standards in reading, mathematics, social studies, and work and career readiness. See below for more information on alignment with national and state standards.

Program Concepts

Banking, Benefits, Budgets, Buying, Careers, Choices, Consumers, Credit, Debt, Exchange, Expenses, Income, Interest rates, Investments, Government, Money, Needs, Opportunity costs, Risk, Salary, Saving, Savings, Scarcity, Social Security, Taxes, Wages, Wants