It serves 10 million students each year in 121 countries – about 50,000 of them here in the Washington, D.C., area. I applaud Junior Achievement’s mission, which is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy and cultivate their understanding of the principles of market-based economics and entrepreneurship.
We are here today to discover Junior Achievement’s Finance Park in Fairfax County. It is the 15th such facility in the United States and will serve 14,000 students annually. The program offers an intensive six-week classroom curriculum, followed by a capstone day at the Finance Park where students participate in a practical personal budgeting simulation.