Grant Will Help Students Learn Financial Literacy

SPRINGDALE — Students at three junior high schools are being prepared to plan financially for their futures, school officials said.

State Farm gave  a $10,000 grant Friday to Junior Achievement of Arkansas, a program teaching financial literacy, said Chad Kauffman, Junior Achievement of Arkansas president. The grant will be used to pay for the Junior Achievement program at George, Southwest and Central junior high schools, he said.

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Junior Achievement Of Arkansas

Junior Achievement of Arkansas is a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 to help students understand business and economics. The organization teaches financial literacy to about 4,000 students in Benton and Washington counties.

Source: Staff Report

The program meets once a week for six weeks, Kauffman said. The grant pays for material and training volunteers from the community who speak with students, he said.

“We go out and recruit business people to go into the classroom,” he said.

Most of the business people who volunteer are from Walmart and GE Capital, Kauffman said.

State Farm has given six grants over the past six years to the Junior Achievement program, said Jeff Davis, public affairs specialist with the company. State Farm officials are interested in helping the program because it allows the students to have an understanding of how to manage money when they are older, he said.

“The relevancy goes through the roof,” Kauffman said.

The program will help students when they are looking at the finances of owning a car or a house, Davis said.

“We bring the real world into the classroom,” said Trey Srygley, chairman of the Northwest Arkansas Junior Achievement Board. “It keeps them thinking about planning.”

Volunteers use activities and their personal experiences to teach the students about budgeting, planning and credit, Srygley said. After six weeks, students receive a certificate for completing the program.

About 500 students — every eighth-grader at George Junior High School — participated in the program this year, said Don Hoover, principal. The program is incorporated into the student’s economics and career development classes, Srygley said.

“We hope this becomes a lifelong tradition for our school,” he said.

Telephone messages left for Darrell Watts, principal at Central Junior High School, and Brice Wagner, principal at Southwest Junior High School, weren't returned by 5 p.m. Friday.

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