Reilly, social studies program coordinator for Fairfax County Public Schools, talks about the partnership among Fairfax County, Junior Achievement and Capital One to create Finance Park, a new program that allows eighth-graders to gain hands-on financial experience. The grand opening of the Finance Park facility in Fairfax is Tuesday. What does the program entail?
It’s a financial literacy program for middle school students. … At the facility the students become adults for a day where they are given an identity, such as married, single, divorced, with an income and family situation in terms of how many children they may have. From that, there are 18 different components, such as housing, home improvement, entertainment, food, clothing, that they then have to develop a budget based upon the income that they have been given.
What are the goals of the program?
The goals include having students become more aware of the financial decisions that their parents are faced with, to have them become more financially aware in general, to increase their financial literacy skills in terms of it’s not just go to the bank, go to the machine, stick in a plastic card and out comes money. There’s a lot more involved with creating a budget and managing money as an adult and we’re trying to make it real for students. By having this hands-on experience at the facility, they are applying the information they have learned in the classroom.
Is this a different approach to learning for Fairfax County?
It’s really what we strive for in a lot of our instruction and it’s the real world application of the content. So, trying to make it meaningful for students where it’s relevant, it’s something that they can relate to and as a result of this experience at the facility it becomes very memorable for them.
— Anna Waugh
