Junior Achievement and Delta Sigma Pi investing in entrepreneur education at local elementary schools

What does investment and entrepreneurship mean? This is a question the fourth graders at Bogan and Kramer were able to answer at the end of the school day on Oct. 25.

Delta Sigma Pi (DSP), a Miami University business fraternity, partnered with Junior Achievement (JA), a nonprofit organization that provides resources to schools to help educate students and set them up for success. For this day, there was specifically a focus on financial literacy.

Steve Brokamp, district director for JA, explained that this is just one of many programs JA works to bring to different schools.

“One way of doing this is by using university students,” Brokamp said. “But traditionally, we’ve used corporate people to be volunteers.”

For this event, there was a combination of DSP and Bank of America employee volunteers, including James “Rich” Lawrence, vice president of strategy execution.

“For the bank, we bring junior associates that want to move up,” Lawrence said. “It’s a safe place, being in front of a classroom, for them to work on their public speaking skills.”

The classroom also allows DSP members to practice their public speaking skills and the knowledge they have learned in the classroom. Nate Burdick, a junior accounting major, volunteered at the event last year when DSP partnered with JA for the first time at Miami.

“I had a blast last year,” Burdick said, “and this semester as well.”

Grace Gannon, a senior majoring in supply chain and operations management from Chicago, remembers doing the program in fifth grade.

“I remember learning what nonprofits are versus businesses that earn money and those sorts of things,” Gannon said. “It was a real ‘Whoa, who’s this important person that's coming to visit us?’”

Skylar Pittman, a fourth-grade teacher at Bogan Elementary, attended Bogan and even recalled a JA event from her fifth grade. She recalled doing mock interviews for jobs and getting to try out a career as a news reporter. Though the focus was different, she remembers it being “so much fun.”

Photo by Sadie Childs | The Miami Student
JA provides resources to schools to help educate kids, this event was specifically for financial literacy.

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Kenzie Koenig, a junior majoring in marketing, explained how important JA’s involvement was in creating the content for the day of classes. Koenig said that JA “ basically made the entire lesson plan” for each volunteer. This included various handouts, flashcards and worksheets for the students to do.

One of the activities included the students creating their own businesses, allowing them to get creative. Some of the students’ ideas included a fishing shop called “Go Fish” and a chicken shop called “Chicken Stock.” Burdick said he was happy with how the event turned out.

“It was really good to see how this impacted the kids,” Burdick said. “It’s something that I wish I had because, honestly I didn't really know what a business was until I got into high school.”

Pittman echoed this sentiment.

“The kids seem to be really grasping a lot of the concepts. I know that these Miami students aren't teachers, but they're doing so well,” Pittman said.

With about 225 kids and roughly 30 volunteers, the event served as a way for many people to be impacted all at once.

"This is a great experience for these kids, and it's an equally great experience for the volunteers because they get to see themselves in a different light," Brokhamp said.

childssb@miamioh.edu