More than 20 DU students volunteered last Friday for “JA in a Day”—an event designed to teach financial literacy to students at Vaughn Elementary School on Colfax in Aurora.
The volunteers taught from curriculum developed by Junior Achievement (JA), an organization that develops programs to teach students in kindergarten through high school financial literacy. The JA materials included different lesson plans for each grade level, which the volunteers used to “take over” teaching in every classroom of the school for the entire school day.
The curricula included everything from teaching younger students about the importance of certain jobs in the community and how they could get those jobs to the steps involved in running a donut shop for older students (which included an actual store simulation). Mariah Bloom, a fourth year El Pomar Foundation scholar on campus who helped coordinate the event, said she thought the event would be valuable for both the DU volunteers and the elementary students.
“[Financial literacy] is an incredibly important thing in our society, especially with current economic trends,” said Bloom. “I hope [DU] students that participate in this realize the value of the knowledge that they currently have. The volunteers are going to go into this and know about the things they teach about—I hope they realize they can share that.”
The event was organized and implemented by the five DU El Pomar Foundation scholars, and started when Bloom, who had worked with JA in the past, suggested the El Pomar Scholars work with JA at the beginning of the school year. When the scholars reached out to JA, one of the things the organization suggested the scholars help with was organizing a JA in a Day event. According to Bloom, El Pomar scholars must apply through the Pioneer Leadership Program and are selected based on several factors, including their interest in the non-profit sector. Once selected, the scholars have a two-year commitment to projects and service such as their work this year with Junior Achievement.
“We’re excited that DU already has strong relationships with Junior Achievement, and they’re always looking for volunteers,” said Bloom.
In order to ensure they had enough volunteers to teach in every classroom of the elementary school, the scholars reached out specifically to the Daniels College of Business and the Pioneer Leadership Program for recruitment, but also sent out an announcement asking for volunteers through the weekly USG email updates. Volunteers went through a brief training process, which included classroom management techniques and teaching methods, before teaching the classes.
Laura Newman, a third-year Economics major, volunteered to teach a third grade class for the day. She said her students seemed to really enjoy the activities, and she liked that the curriculum taught students concepts through activities and experience.
“It’s not the typical teaching style—it’s more engaging and it tries to make things practical,” said Newman. “I felt like the kids really got something for their futures out of it.”
Newman also said she found it very “eye-opening” to be in Vaughn Elementary, a school where approximately 90 percent of students are on free and reduced lunch. Bloom also mentioned this fact as something that she hoped would impact the DU volunteers.
“Being able to see that as an educated college student or as an educated adult you have the power to impact these low-income, free and reduced lunch, minority populations in kind of a unique way—through teaching about a donut shop—I think is really cool,” said Bloom.
She also said she thinks this particular volunteer event offered a unique opportunity for DU students.
“It makes DU students really have an impact,” she said. “It’s a really cool way to get students involved in the community a little bit differently than the traditional show up to a place, volunteer for a couple hours and leave. This is really having an impact directly.”
Bloom said another initiative that JA suggested the scholars help with was the improvement of JA’s social media outreach program for volunteers in the Rocky Mountain Region. Bloom says the scholars have been working on the project throughout the school year.
Anyone interested in learning more about JA and volunteer activities can find more information on the Junior Achievement Rocky Mountain Region Facebook page.
