Students learn rigors of life by taking part in mock city

By Jeff Raymond

Published: May 15, 2007

Make-believe has never been so real.

Junior Achievement of Greater Oklahoma City has a fully functioning mock-up of a city, where as many as 75 students at a time spend a half-day learning about business.

Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students learn about the complexity of running a business and, organizers hope, learn about occupations they may not have considered.

In their classrooms, students bid on jobs, for which their teachers interview them. They serve as mayors, broadcasters, delivery workers, accountants, reporters and shopkeepers.

Students study state curriculum-aligned lesson plans that prepare them for their final exam: creating their own working economy in Exchange City.

"They might get the job they want, they might not,” said Christy Layton-Farley, Exchange City site manager.

Students, Layton-Farley said, usually end up enjoying whatever job they get.

"We've never had problems with discipline, and we've had every type of kid imaginable,” she said.

Once they are at Junior Achievement's Omniplex headquarters, they take their places in a village of largely corporate-sponsored businesses — The Oklahoman employs reporters, editors and advertising representatives; IBC Bank employs bankers and tellers; United Parcel Service employs couriers, and so on. The goal, besides keeping the businesses running, is to pay off Small Business Administration loans.

"When they get here, it's like their first day on the job,” Layton-Farley said.

If they're lucky, they'll have enough Exchange City money left over in their checking accounts to buy some popcorn from the Sonic snack shop and donate the rest to charity.

Steve Kime came to Junior League in March from Tulsa. With years of experience in broadcasting, fundraising and in corporate public relations, he hopes to make the organization a larger, more visible presence across its eight-county area than it has been in previous years.

"We're a well-kept secret,” said Kime, the organization's president. "I've got, as my mom would say, a row to hoe to turn this thing around,” he said. "We need to be on people's radar.”

This year, Kime said, he would like to introduce 3,000 students to Exchange City and teach 10,000 children the Junior Achievement curriculum.

"We have challenges with debt,” he said. "People get divorces over money problems. Money is the source of a lot of good things and maybe not-so-good things, so, with Junior Achievement, if we can begin in the elementary school level to inspire and educate kids about debt about paying loans, about borrowing money, about paying money, if we can start that early, that would help.”

Fundraising and increasing awareness are challenges Kime expects, but he said his experience working for Special Olympics and with other nonprofits taught him what he needs to know.

"We've got a multitude of challenges in front of us but I can see how all these little things along the way have prepared me for what we're facing,” he said.