Business : Benton County Students will have a chance to learn about the importance of money

Thanks to the generosity of Transamerica, 3,087 Eastern Iowa students will be immersed in relevant, hands-on learning programs that foster financial literacy, career readiness, and entrepreneurship skills.

“Transamerica is pleased to have a longstanding history of supporting Junior Achievement through our Foundation contributions and employee volunteers,” said Christine Vorhies, Senior Vice President of Operations at Transamerica. “We recognize the value Junior Achievement brings to the community through hands-on financial literacy and work readiness training for students in Eastern Iowa. The program is well aligned with Transamerica’s purpose to help people achieve a lifetime of financial security. Junior Achievement plays an important role to help our schools meet the evolving demands for new financial literacy programs and we’re happy to provide the financial support to launch the next high school level financial literacy course.”

Since 2003, Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa and the Transamerica Foundation have been collaborating to provide kindergarten through 12^th grade students in Eastern Iowa with experiential learning programs. Through participation, students have learned—and will continue to learn—the importance of earning money, spending wisely within a budget, saving, investing, using credit, and how career choice directly impacts finances.

“I learned how to be smart with credit and debit cards and to always be prepared for surprise expenses. I liked when we were assigned a job and had to choose things to purchase based on our income. The activity showed us what it’s like to only have so much money to spend on things.”

-Addison, JA Economics for Success^® Student, Prairie Intermediate School

Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa is viewed as the leading partner organization by 196 schools that bring the business and education communities together to help students understand how the skills and concepts they are learning can be applied to everyday life, bringing relevance to the classroom!

As one of the partner districts, Dr. Douglas Wheeler, Superintendent of College Community School District, explains the impact and alignment of Junior Achievement programs. He references the new high school financial literacy program that Transamerica is sponsoring.

“Not only does Junior Achievement expose students to content and adult role models they would not otherwise interact with, it offers a conduit for community engagement with our schools. Our staff believes in the Junior Achievement programming and comment on the positive influence the programming and volunteers have on our students. Junior Achievement has maintained relevancy, constantly examining programming to meet the needs of the students they serve. For example, Junior Achievement has taken the time and effort to align programming with state and national standards. Additionally, they have been an invaluable support for recent state legislation requiring the quick adoption of coursework for financial literacy as a requirement for graduation.”

Junior Achievement programs are taught by 1,295 volunteers who serve as role models from 479 local businesses within the community. These individuals infuse all the knowledge they developed over a lifetime of running a business and serving the community into each lesson within the Junior Achievement curriculum.