Martha and Spencer Love School of Business students partnered with Junior Achievement USA to offer lessons at E.M. Holt Elementary School.
Sixty Martha and Spencer Love School of Business students taught lessons on financial literacy to students at E.M. Holt Elementary School in Alamance County this past fall. Through a partnership with Junior Achievement, the students cumulatively volunteered more than 300 hours, covering topics including saving money, the value of work, making a budget, starting a business, and finding a job.
Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students in grades K-12 about entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs.
“Junior Achievement has been a great way for me to connect with and give back to the community,” said Natalie Ivanov ’22, a Business Fellow and an accounting and finance double major. “This past fall, I volunteered with a first-grade classroom to cover topics such as needs, wants, what a business is, and the role of money in our daily lives. It was such a rewarding experience to work with these students and see the excitement that our activities brought to them.”
The program introduced the elementary students to concepts such as how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking in the workplace.
“Junior Achievement showed me the importance of teaching financial literacy at a young age and how this information will positively impact the youth in the future,” said Zaina Huseni ’21, a finance major. “Serving as a volunteer for the program helped me apply my leadership skills in a real-world setting as well as build connections with a community outside of Elon.”
According to the National Financial Educators Council, by instilling healthy financial habits early on, young students are more likely to have positive behavioral changes that will be beneficial long term, such as having a checking account, budgeting wisely, saving for retirement and more.
“Junior Achievement was a great service opportunity that allowed me to contribute to the nearby community,” said finance major Samuel Gans ’22. “We were able to build great relationships with the students and give them a head start on being financially literate. All of the volunteers loved getting to see the kids!”
Unfortunately, the volunteer program for the spring semester was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Chris Harris, associate professor of finance and chair of the Department of Finance, serves as Elon’s Junior Achievement faculty coordinator. For more information on volunteering with Junior Achievement’s financial literacy program, email charris24@elon.edu.