Latest News

There’s a scenario about to play out across South Dakota where a sixth-grader is the mayor. Also, you’ll find a middle schooler as a meter-reader, banker and shop owner.

In Junior Achievement’s JA BizTown® program, new this year, middle school students will be dropped into a simulated community – where they must learn to work together to keep the lights on and the doors open.

It’s just the latest step for the organization, which tries to teach students everything from the language of budgeting to what jobs are available in the state to what it takes to run a city.

“Our organization is here to prepare our students for life after graduation,” said Kayla Eitreim, President & CEO of Junior Achievement South Dakota, which reaches more than a third of all students in the state. “We want to connect them to people they’ve never met before and help them understand the importance of what they’re learning in school and how that carries forward into the future.”

They try to do that through a variety of programming – including volunteers teaching financial literacy and business skills in classrooms across the state. New lessons and experiences launched over the past few years bring different ways of learning – and teaching – these skills.

Newest for Junior Achievement is JA BizTown, which launches locally in March and will serve 500 students in a pilot program. Kids come to the simulation day and are given a job and spend half a day learning how their role connects to others in the city.

“There’s a mayor, CEOs, salespeople and safety officers, all kinds of things, and they’re sending invoices and paying bills,” Eitreim said. “They all have to understand that the things they do in their job keep the city functioning and along with understanding their role as a citizen, as a worker, and as a consumer. They get to play all those roles during that experience.”

The program begins with classroom curriculum, which is followed by the practical simulation involving community volunteers. Next year, the program expects to expand in Sioux Falls and Harrisburg.

“From there, the sky’s the limit.”

Evolving organization

It’s the logical evolution for the organization, which hopes to show students not only how to make good financial decisions but that there’s plenty of opportunity in South Dakota. For example, the JA Inspire® program introduces eighth-grade students to careers.

“Kids might know the jobs of the people they live with, their family members, maybe their neighbors, and that might be it,” Eitreim said. “So, if we can expose them to other opportunities, it’s a way to hopefully keep them in South Dakota after graduation.”

Andy Patterson, CEO of the Community Foundation, said it’s important to help young people with financial literacy – and that Junior Achievement offers another way for kids to learn.

“They continue to find new ways to reach young people, and it’s inspiring to see that,” Patterson said. “We believe in the power of education and community, and Junior Achievement is instrumental in both.”

The JA Inspire program brings together the business community and local schools, showcasing nearly 100 career options available in the state.

“They get to chat with the people who do those careers, use their tools, try their technology, and really understand what it’s like to have that kind of job,” Eitreim said. 

Maybe they find a career they didn’t know existed or learn more about what works and what doesn’t for them. “We really want to showcase what is available in our state because these are future leaders in our classrooms.”

Pop-up program

Students want to better understand not only their place in the world, but the practical tools to navigate it. After middle school students said they wanted more financial literacy education, JA Finance Park® launched locally in 2024 as a pop-up program.

“We can collapse it down, like a trade show booth, and take it from community to community,” Eitreim said of the program. It was a perfect solution. In a state as vast as South Dakota, sometimes taking the program to the students makes more sense than bringing the students to the program.

At JA Finance Park, students begin with classroom instruction on personal finance  – budgeting, credit, student loans and more. Then, they come to the pop-up venue, where each student receives a scenario: What their job is, what it pays, a credit score and how many people are in their family.

Then they go station to station and make a plan to buy a house, find childcare, buy a car or a bus pass. Maybe their scenario has a bad credit score or a lot of student loan debt. Maybe at the first station, they buy a luxury car and realize a few steps later they can’t afford it.

At each of the 20 stations, a volunteer helps students walk through that area: Denied a mortgage because of bad credit? Let’s find somewhere to rent. Childcare costs might trump that luxury car payment, time for some tough decisions.

(Luckily, kids can return their cars at JA Finance Park.)

Don’t forget groceries, utilities and charitable giving – plus, furniture, vacations and entertainment.

“They really have to decide how to live within their means,” Eitreim said. “We hope they leave with an understanding of what it feels like as an adult, and what the adults in their lives are thinking as they make decisions.”

It’s financial literacy with a side of compassion, in one sense.

Eitreim hopes it’s just another way to get through to kids and show them more of what’s possible. It’s also fun for volunteers – who tell Eitreim it’s a great way to engage.

Last year, the experience reached students in six South Dakota communities and will expand further this spring.

Eitreim said the Community Foundation grants have helped launch new programming like JA BizTown and JA Finance Park.

“We appreciate the Community Foundation and their understanding of what it takes to start something new,” Eitreim said. “The grants we’ve received have helped us launch new experiences for the many kids we serve.”