Junior Achievement deepens reach in Cedar Rapids schools

Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa is counting on over 1,500 volunteers this school year to deliver to more students instruction that helps prepare them for their future lives and careers.

The nonprofit with a presence of almost 60 years in Eastern Iowa entered into a new agreement with the Cedar Rapids Community School District that expands Junior Achievement’s programming to grades K-9. That’s an increase from serving just two grades — second and eighth — and about 2,500 students to serving more than 10,000 students in Cedar Rapids, said Nate Klein, vice president for education at Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa.

That alone takes an addition of about 400 volunteers, Klein said.

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Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa — which has a staff of 24 — recruits, places, trains and oversees volunteers needed to deliver many of its programs across 12 public school districts and six non-public schools, Klein said. This includes programs like Junior Achievement Our Community, a curriculum for elementary students that intersects social studies and work readiness to teach how citizens benefit from and contribute to a community’s success.

Programs like these typically are five 45-minute sessions that support national and state standards in reading, math, social studies and work and career readiness. There are programs geared toward each grade level.

Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa provides program materials for students, teachers and volunteers to school districts for a fee of less than $14 per student. That’s about one-third of the costs to deliver the program, Klein said. The rest of the cost is made up through grant funding and corporate and private donations to Junior Achievement.

Adam Zimmermann, executive director of innovation for the Cedar Rapids district, said programs provided by Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa will expand college and career readiness curriculum to younger students as the district embarks on its new pathways program. Beginning with ninth-graders next fall, four high schools will offer different pathways for students to explore and gain experience in a career field to determine if it’s right for them.

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“What we’re trying to do is make our classrooms relevant to the outside world and have kids be able to see themselves in college and a career field,” Zimmermann said.

The partnership with Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa will be a yearslong process as the organizations work to “build a bench of volunteers” who will return in subsequent years to the Cedar Rapids district to deliver Junior Achievement curriculum.

“We want to make sure these experiences for kids and also for the volunteers are positive and that this is sustainable,” Zimmermann said.

Volunteers ‘secret sauce’ to success

Erin Kurt, executive vice president of Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa, said volunteers and business partnerships are the “secret sauce.” They bring relevance to what teachers in the classroom are working to teach students, she said.

In its partnerships with schools, Junior Achievement recruits, trains, schedules and places volunteers.

Kurt said the nonprofit has evolved a lot since she began with it almost 20 years ago. The programs it offers today are helping teachers meet learning standards and give students a better understanding of their community and the world of work, she said.

It’s a “rich” experience for students and volunteers, Kurt said.

Sam Kramer, a vice president for Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust, has been volunteering with Junior Achievement for over a decade. During that time, he’s taught lessons to almost 500 students.

“That’s crazy to think about having an impact in their lives even a little bit,” Kramer said.

Kramer currently is in the middle of teaching a second-grade class the Our Community curriculum. He even taught a lesson on voting where students got to practice filling out a ballot. The issue? How to improve a local park. The options students were given included building a dog park, adding more benches or adding more trash and recycling receptacles to keep the park cleaner.

“It was a good learning experience, especially with the election, to learn that if you get the opportunity to vote, you should vote, but you don’t always get what you voted for,” Kramer said.

Kramer said Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust encourages its employees to volunteer and lets them volunteer during the work day within reason.

Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa also hosts events throughout the school year that are opportunities for students to explore careers and learn about personal finance in addition to their programming.

BizTown Mobile — first piloted in May 2023 — allows students to operate banks, manage restaurants, write checks and vote for mayor. Career Inspire — most recently held in October — brings business volunteers together to help students explore careers through hands-on activities.

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At BizTown Mobile events, volunteers mentor small groups of students throughout the day. No special skills or preparation are required, and volunteers receive training.

Finance Park Mobile is an educator-led classroom curriculum that culminates with a visit to a “finance park” where students engage with volunteers to put into practice what they’ve learned by developing a personal budget.

Volunteers with Finance Park Mobile are assigned to a “storefront” where they provide students information about different budget items, assist students in balancing their budget and help them to stay on task and focus on personal goals.

Volunteers do not need specific expertise and are encouraged to share real-world experiences and advice with students as they learn what it means to be a working professional.

Olivia Cesnik, a lead treasury management implementation specialist at MidWestOne Bank, has been volunteering with Junior Achievement for about three years. She teaches several programs to eighth-graders, an age group she felt familiar with since she grew up riding horses and teaching riding lessons.

Cesnik said when she started, she was able to co-teach with a more experienced Junior Achievement volunteer. She’s since co-taught with others so they could “dip their feet in” to volunteering with the program, she said.

The lessons she teaches cover personal finance like taxes, insurance, credit scores and making a budget.

“It’s kind of fun because once they realize I’m a banker, there’s a lot of bank-specific questions related to that curriculum. It’s fun to answer those questions and make it more of a dialogue instead of a lecture,” Cesnik said.

Cesnik said her background in banking is not required “by any stretch of the imagination” to volunteer with Junior Achievement. “Every adult has their own experiences with insurance or a credit score or buying a car,” she said.

The Junior Achievement curriculum provides everything volunteers need, Cesnik said. The day before she’s teaching a class, she does some prepwork that’s “never more than 20 minutes.”

How to volunteer

To volunteer with Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa, visit easterniowa.ja.org/volunteer/volunteer-now

Students feel empowered by Junior Achievement programs

Data collected by Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa shows that the programs it offers are making a difference by connecting what students learn in the classroom to their future career prospects and financial literacy.

Following a Junior Achievement program experience, 38 percent of students were more confident in their ability to spend and save money wisely. About 88 percent believe their academic performance will affect their ability to have a career that provides financial security. Ninety-three percent said they feel very confident or extremely confident in their ability to manage their financial future.

About 97 percent of students who participated in Junior Achievement Economics for Success — which introduces middle school students to careers and financial literacy — said they were more confident in their ability to succeed in the workforce to support their financial goals.

Ninety-six percent of students who participated in BizTown Mobile said they feel the choices they make about how they spend and save money will impact their life.

‘First in the nation’ partnership with Iowa City district

Other ways Junior Achievement is deepening its roots in local school districts is through a proposed partnership with the Iowa City Community School District that would be the first in the nation to bring so many of its programs under one roof.

Over the next five years, the Iowa City district would spend an estimate $5.6 million to remodel its Center for Innovation into learning spaces to deliver Junior Achievement’s programming. Funding for construction costs would come from Secure an Advanced Vision for Education, a capital projects fund that’s funded by statewide sales taxes.

Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa would invest an estimated $1.2 million in staffing and programming support while bringing $1.5 million in asset and software intellectual property design to the district.

The Iowa City school board is expected to vote this winter on the proposal.

3DE in College Community, Alburnett

College Community and Alburnett school districts are the first in Iowa this school year to launch a program powered by Junior Achievement called 3DE — otherwise known as 3 Dimensional Learning. In this program, students work with business partners to solve a problem the business is facing through collaboration and competition with each other.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com