JA World - Fact Sheet

Experience Junior Achievement (JA World) is a new vision of teaching and learning about American      enterprise, financial literacy, and entrepreneurism. It is a dynamic, experiential learning system with both a hands-on and curriculum approach in the classroom to prepare and inspire students for the future.

• Junior Achievement has built one JA World learning center in Auburn, and is looking to secure property to build a North Campus. Each center will house JA Biztown and JA Finance Park and both centers will impact a combined 45,000 students each year at full capacity.
• JA Biztown, a program for fifth graders, is an actual city run entirely by students who are engaged for a day as business owners, employees, consumers, and city officials. JA Finance Park, a program for eighth graders, focuses on personal financial skills such as budgeting, saving, and investing.
• Students prepare for six to eight weeks in the classroom before their daylong JA World practicum.
• The Boeing Company donated 5.5 acres for the "Boeing Center for Free Enterprise" South Campus in Auburn. It is located at 610 Perimeter Road.
• The "Boeing Center for Free Enterprise" Grand Opening was on November 16, 2004. Pilot programs also began in November.
• Callison Architecture donated architectural and design services for the 28,000 square foot facility. Howard S. Wright Construction donated labor costs toward building the facility.
• Twenty store fronts make up JA Biztown and JA Finance Park and are sponsored by actual area businesses including: Washington Mutual, KCPQ/KTWB-TV, State Farm Insurance, UW Medicine, Weyerhaeuser, Quadrant Homes, IKEA, Best Buy, SuperGraphics, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PEMCO Insurance, Puget Sound Energy, Titus-Will, Russell Investment Group, US Bank, Seattle Mariners, Puget Sound Business Journal, Vacation Internationale, Home Depot, Office Depot, and KPMG.
• In-kind or reduced services or products have been provided by Sparling, BarclayDean, KPFF, BigInk, The Transpo Group, Barghausen, ACCO, Milgard Windows, VECA, Steelcraft, Potelco, Active Construction, Expert Drywall, Icon Materials, InfraStructures, Tru Green, Ferguson Enterprises, Brandrud, Hodgson/Meyers, and Porter Novelli.
• JA Biztown and JA Finance Park are modeled after programs of the Pinellas County School District in Florida founded in 1989.
• Fifth and eight grade students will experience the connection between hard work and tangible success, earning and learning; personal responsibility, leadership and team building; and the consequences and success of actual decision-making.