Volunteers play vital roles in education

Alan Borsuk:

Dejuan McGowan was trying to figure out how he was going to budget the money he was making. He thought about getting a one-bedroom house, but decided that, in case he and his wife have a child, they should go for two bedrooms. It would cost $855 a month, plus $200 for utilities.

"That puts me at $1,055 and I only have a house and some light," he said. "That's going to cut down on cable, health care and furnishing." And there won't be much money for entertainment, once you add in food, a car, telephone, and a few other things.

This wasn't real life for McGowan, an 11th-grader at Holy Redeemer Christian Academy. It was a morning in the JA Finance Park, a spacious, Main Street-like setting where about 9,000 students from throughout the region have come in the course of this school year to get a dose of the realities they will face when they reach (dare they think about it) adulthood. They are assigned an income and personal circumstances, given information on needs and costs, given coaching from both Junior Achievement staff and volunteers from businesses. The goal: a plan for how to spend their money.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 7, 2012 1:09 AM
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