Following the success of the 2016 Washington Business Hall of Fame to benefit Junior Achievement, Gala Chair and PenFed Credit Union President and CEO expanded PenFed’s dynamic partnership with Junior Achievement by signing onto its second JA Finance Park storefront partnership—this time as the Transportation Storefront partner at the forthcoming JA Finance Park Montgomery County facility, opening in 2018. This new partnership builds on PenFed’s existing commitment as the Transportation Storefront partner at JA Finance Park Prince George’s County in Landover, Maryland, which serves over 9,000 Prince George’s County Public Schools students each year.
“Someday these middle school students will run our businesses and change our world,” Schenck told Junior Achievement of Greater Washington’s Board of Directors during a luncheon celebrating the first year of the JA Finance Park in Prince George’s County. “But first, these students are learning valuable life skills right here.”
As the Transportation Storefront partner, PenFed will empower each student to decide how to finance a car within a budget. Just as in real life, each choice a student makes—the type of car, the options, and the terms of the loan—will have an impact on their bottom line. But instead of waiting until the end of the month to discover whether they can make ends meet, students at JA Finance Park figure it out by the end of the day.
Before students travel to JA Finance Park, they take part in JA’s unique 14-lesson classroom curriculum, split into four main categories, taught by their teacher. This knowledge serves as a foundation in personal finance education and gives them the skills they need to take on their JA Finance Park experience with everything they need to be successful.
A recent national evaluation of the program revealed that students who participated in JA Finance Park acquired financial literacy knowledge; in fact, the knowledge gain was “moderate-to-large,” indicating a meaningful gain in knowledge by participating students. In the same study, teachers perceived strong impacts on students and indicated that participating in the program impacted a variety of student skills and dispositions to a moderate or great extent. A 2016 JA USA® Alumni study revealed that JA Alumni are 30 percent more likely to have their bachelor’s degree, 67 percent more likely to have an advanced degree, and have a household income 20 percent higher than their non-Junior Achievement peers.
“These students are learning to be financially capable, tenacious, and creative problem solvers; they are learning to manage risks and become ready for success,” said Schenck. “As one of America’s leading providers of financial services, PenFed understands that preparing the next generation of consumers will support our nation’s future economy.”
JA Finance Park Montgomery County partners will make this innovative experience possible for 12,000 Montgomery County Public Schools’ students annually. A list of committed partners and available opportunities is available at www.myja.org/programs/financepark.
Since opening the region’s first facility, JA Finance Park Fairfax County in 2010, the program has served over 90,000 students through over 1 million instructional hours.
About PenFed Credit Union
Established in 1935 as the War Department Credit Union, PenFed Credit Union is one of the largest credit unions in the country, serving 1.4 million members worldwide; with $20 billion in assets. Its long-standing mission has been to provide superior financial services in a cost effective manner, while being responsive to members’ needs. PenFed Credit Union offers market-leading mortgages, automobile loans, credit cards, checking, and a wide range of other financial services with its members’ interests always in mind. PenFed Credit Union serves a diverse population, and no military service is required to join. We offer many paths to membership, including numerous employee groups and association affiliations. It’s easy to apply. We invite you to come see why you belong at PenFed Credit Union. To learn more about PenFed Credit Union, visit PenFed.org, like us on Facebook and follow us @PenFed on Twitter. Interested in working for PenFed? Check us out on Linkedin. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer: M/F/V/D.
About Junior Achievement of Greater Washington
Junior Achievement® is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students in grades K-12 about financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship, reaching more than 8 million students in 100 countries worldwide. In the most powerful city in the world, Junior Achievement of Greater Washington has been transforming lives for a half century through its innovative, hands-on financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship K-12 programs. Its best-in-business Board of Directors represents a “who’s who” of Washington business, and its proven-record of success in delivery of programs and corporate partnerships shows that there is no organization better-equipped to lead a major movement of youth preparedness in our nation’s capital. JA’s unique program approach brings volunteer role models from our region’s leading companies and the community to deliver these standards-based programs, providing students with a perspective that reaches far beyond the classroom. Since its founding in 1965, Junior Achievement of Greater Washington has inspired more than 800,000 of Greater Washington’s young people to envision their future and understand that anything is possible.