i'm susan hogan. welcome to "viewpoint." when it comes to kids and money, they certainly know how to spend it. when it comes to saving or making a budget it's a struggle to get them to tart. this morning we're talking about a program dedicated to helping kids of all ages learn about financial literacy. in other words, getting our kids ready for the real world. our guests this morning alice reilly, coordinator pre-k through 12 studies. chelsea soneira vice president program junior achievement of greater washington, and david harrington, board member and ceo of the prince george's chamber ofmm

us. when i was asked to host, i was thinking they know exactly who to ask. i have twin 17-year-old on the way to college and an 11-year-old. they sure know how to spend my money. when it comes to knowing what to do with it and safe it they have no clue. i've learned a lot about junior achievement. chelsea, let's start with you. let's tell our viewers a little bit about it. if your parents are watching at home, might be time to wake up your kids to watch this. >> we inspire young people to navigate their own path to the american dream. how do you do that? how do you make it easy. they have to be empowered. they have to have access to give them guidance, hands on learning. we do that. we bring them financial literacy instruction, career preparedness, entrepreneur and partnership with local volunteers and schools to bring everything to life. this

work in the greater washington area. the over 4,000 volunteers bring light bulb moments to life with the kids. >> that's fantastic. you have the program. then folks like you, alice, are the ones that implement them into the system and david as well into prince george's county. tell me how a school system like fairfax county does this. where do you start? how do we begin there? >> started on small scale with the pilot. when our superintendent said, okay, we want to try this out. let's see what happens. and so we looked at the program instructionally because with the program in particular, there is a classroom component, which was going to impact our teachers and instructional time and then there was also a hands-on experience. we had transportation and lots of people were involved in sitting around the table. at the end of the day after the pilot, the teachers, the

parents, the administrators said this is good for kids. we need to do this. >> so talk to me about fairfax schools and your role and what you do, just so folks watching this understand. >> fairfax county public schools is the tenth largest public school system in the country. we have 187,000 kids, almost 200 school sites. so ja actually has programs that encompass, are included in our programs, elementary, middle and high, all levels. so my role as social studies coordinator is to oversee curriculum resources and provide training for teachers, support and training for teachers in social studies. financial literacy is part of that because economics is part of social studies. >> great. david, in prince george's county, the program there is relatively new. how is it going so far? >> it's going amazing. you see young people come in. they are having --he

adhere to that budget. they have to figure out what's my mortgage going to be, am i going to buy a car, am i going to get cable, what's that cell phone going to be like. all those things up until then they have taken for granted, now they have to adhere to a budget and the learning that happens to make it. >> how has ja, junior achievement worked for prince george's county? are you starting to see the fruits of the labor so far? >> absolutely. i think best learning happens when students experience. so with me now is a really enlightenment and light bulbs are going off in a way this says, hmm, next time i ask mom or dad for money, when they say no, i understand. and so we're seeing that the school system, in fact, the state of maryland in a lot of ways are so inspired by junior achievement now requires financial literacy. >> that's p

about more and we'll do that in our next segment as well, is something really pretty much driving, too. we'll talk a little about what when we come back. join us. look, i know you're a cow and all. and you may not know what i'm talking about,

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welcome back, everyone to "viewpoint." i'm susan hogan and joined by great guests who are talking about something if you're a parent you may not know exists in your school. if you don't know, it might be something you start volunteering for. it's junior achievement and it's making kids learning about how to manage their money in the real world. as part of jr. achievement, one of the greatest programs, and i was reading about this, something called finance park. chelsea, can you explain that to us and how parents and kids ld

>> finance park, the middle school experience. finance park, i call it the mall of life. it's a chance for students can be an adult for the day. we run it with 25,000 students. by 2018 we'll have 30,000 students in the region participating. >> so what do they do? >> students come to the facility, enter a fairly nondescript room. as they leave that room, we open the doors to their life as an adult. we hand them a tablet. it's a new life, income, credit score, debt, everything you need. >> the first time they are seeing something going, oh, credit scores, what the heck is that? >> finding out they have a low income and two kids and no spouse, it is a shock to some of them. >> implement that, how do the school systems do that, go to the facility? how does it work. >> there are two com ponce. one is classroom instruction where they will learn a lot about these terms

in the classroom in a teacher facilitated way. then they go to the finance park facility. our system transports them there. and they experience why all of that knowledge that they learned in the classroom in a very concrete, hands-on way. >> for example, are they given a budget and a job. you're saying they have marital status, what have you. they have to go and do real world experiences there. >> there's 18 line items you would normally have in a household budget. entertainment, utilities, mortgage, transportation, even savings and vacations. and so the students learn about -- they go around to the different store front at the facilities to learn about what might be their options given their life scenario. then they have to come back to a room and using their

actually de vrivise a budget. the goal is to have a balanced budget so you have something in every line item by the end of the day. >> i think the real value of junior achievement, it helps the student go from this to invest. look at money, money is not just something i go out and spend, get the latest fashion. there are implications to everything they do with money. now money is a tool to set forth a lifestyle. as you know, even in this region, we have some equities in this region. so now it takes all these students to say, you know what, i can invest, i can build a business, i can change my life just from this learning. junior achievement is an amazing experience for these kids. >> i think what you're saying, too, it's so correct, because so often in school, i hear

this is going to help me understand what's happening in the real world. sounds like what ja does and especially with finance park is put the real world in their hands, kind of like on a trial run. how are the students responding in your county? >> they love it. >> yeah. >> they really understand about the future. now i know where i'm going. so civics is great and learning math is great but now there's an application for all this that leads to real life experience. when i was a kid, if i graduated from high school, i didn't know how to write a check. i didn't know how to open up a bank account. >> right. >> these young people learn in middle school what a bank account is, credit card, credit score is. all these real life experiences, they are going to be well prepared to enter into this real economy. >> some of the best comments at the end were i didn't realize my re

difficult decisions. i'm going to go home and thank my mom for what all she does. >> love that. >> it just makes your heart tingle. >> thanks so much, guys. we're going to come back from a commercial break and talk about what it takes to drive this, right? a lot of volunteers needed. we'll be right back, everyone. thank you so much. did you say honey? hey, try some? mmm that is tasty. is it real? of course... are you? nope animated you know i'm always looking for real honey for honey nut cheerios well you've come to the right place. great, mind if i have another taste?

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welcome back, everyone. i'm susan hogan. talking about junior achievement. this has really been enlightening for me, a mom of three, of kids who like to spend money. to come in here at this point with their kids, what really drives ja is volunteers. without the volunteers, you

sponsorships as well can't exist. who best to talk about volunteering and bringing these people in there and what to look for. >> what we tell our volunteers, if you're an adult and you paid a bill, you are qualified. the role of the volunteer is not only to inspire the students but give them real world application. how do we make decisions, what are things i need to consider. it's really giving them someone else to consult with. we have opportunities with volunteers from everywhere to couple weeks to five hours a day at multiple sites. we can send kids in to job sites and job shadowing. >> job shadowing for kids is so cool, gives them that real world experience. how many do you have in greater washington area helping out? >> i was going to say, suffolk county thousands each year and utilize over 2,000 volunteers. >> wow, that's a lot. could you use more? >>

absolutely. all the time. >> right. yeah. >> these are both parent and corporate sponsorships. >> talking about corporate sponsorships, enlighten us about that. how do businesses get involved and what is their role? >> chamber of commerce partners deeply with ja. what we do is provide many of the volunteers. we provide some dollars, because it takes money to keep this going. it takes consistent money. capital one, for example, major, major sponsor. want to thank them for what they are doing. right in line wanting to make sure there's multiple access. >> so how do people get involved? what's the first thing if they are watching this and say, this is really cool, whether business owner or parent, what's the first thing they need to do, go within the school system? even if they don't have kids,

best thing is fill out the website, go online, get in touch with us. they will talk about the best time to get involved even if they want to get their kids involved with that. >> alice, david, both you guys can answer this. do you find kids saying after they go through this program, do they have that aha moment, oh, my gosh,noid idea. >> certainly. our finance park, we have a graffiti wall where kids do a reflection on it at the end. some of the most amazing comments are, i didn't know my mom had to make such difficult decisions. i'm going to go home and thank my parents for everything they do. i'm never having kids. they are too expensive. comments like that that really make you think they learned something. >> that aha moment of a volunteer that gets to work there. they have the aha moment

i'm creating here, investing in the future. before where they weren't too active in something like this, now it instills a lot of hope and a lot of connections with the community in a way that hasn't happened without the financing. >> for so many kids, they just take money for granted and budget, they don't know what to do. the finance park is geared for middle school grades but junior achievement goes through high school. correct? for many of these kids, they are getting their first job. they are making their first -- getting their first paycheck. so i'm sure that plays a huge role educating them as to how to manage. >> we find that students who get involved in internships perform better in school. there's a direct correlation between having those out of school opportunities to performance in school.

way of being able to reach their professional dreams. >> it just makes the instruction much more relevant, and the application of what they have learned from a book piece, now how to apply it. >> uh-huh. do you also see -- from what i understand, too, you've got fairfax county, prince george's county, montgomery county. >> yes. >> and you're working very diligently to try to bring it into washington, d.c.. >> we actually serve over 7,000 students in d.c. a lot of them through finance park and a lot through k through 12 programs we do. it's a huge area we want to serve. we wan to bring this to all students. we found spending habits really begin in middle school. it begins when they are really, really young. we want to get students before that, get them invested in education process, when they are starting to make decisions and take them to high school. get them that relevant hands-on learning. >> we'll be right back after this. swi

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welcome back to "viewpoint," everyone. i'm susan hogan, and i am joined with these overachievers of junior achievement. this is such a great eye-opener for so many of us watching and learning about this incredible program. what i find very interesting is the feedback. it's all about feedback and what you're getting. you guys just recently did a survey. did you survey the actual kids who went through these programs? >> we did. we surveyed around the nation. 19 parks nationwide, in 2018 we'll have three of them. what we got back was astonishing. the results, kids are changing their mind. seven students start with negative outlook, six of them ha

participating in finance park. it echoes what we see at the park but now we know it is working. they are taking that back home to their communities every year. >> and back to their parents who probably need financial literally themselves, like myself. let's talk about also what i think is interesting, is it a mandatory program in your school district? is it something you're seeing is going to be a trend going forward for other counties throughout the country and fairfax and prince george's this is something you have to make mandatory. >> in fairfax in eighth grade, civics and economics is the title of the course. all students who access that program participate in the finance park. we have actually made it and integrated it into our curriculum. so everybody does. >> similar to prince george's county, not a course but economics, civics and other activities in the school. >> for parents who are watching

at home to kind of enhance what junior achievement does in the classroom. what can the parents do for the kids at home? >> talk to them. talk to them about decision making, when they pay the bills, some of the things that go into making the decisions that they -- do i pay the whole credit card bill? do i pay some of it? interest rates. having them look at a credit card and look at the interest rates on a credit card. >> two that come to mind is share and authorize. share with a young person and say, look, we're going to these little challenges. you've gone through ja, tell me how would you solve this, then authorize them. we'll do your plan a little bit. that builds them up to be part of the family in a way that shapes their future. >> that's so important getting kids involved in the family financing. it might make the kids not ask

like new pairs of shoes every time you turn around, once they realize the reality is that the money is not there. it's a debt. so i think also it's important you guys, and you talked about volunteering and you also talked about the corporate sponsorship, fundraising is huge. have you a big fundraiser coming up i understand. >> premier in the city, washington business hall of fame, national building museum. everybody has been there. it is a fun night. but it is really student focused. it's to bring attention to this issue. >> they have had some phenomenal student speakers there that just are very inspiring. >> i'm sure, you know, as former educators and being part of this program, to see these kids go through a program like this just must make the two of you feel, gosh, pretty proud about it. >> i'm so delighted and excited that thiss

county. it's really needed in prince george's county. it is amazing facility. it really is. the kids come out of there like, wow. >> yeah. >> so we're happy to have ja there and the chamber is delighted to be a partner. >> you've got the business, the students. it's such an integration of the community working together to educate these kids on the financial end, which is fabulous. >> very real life. feels like you're making a difference. that's why we go into education, to make a difference. >> great. that you so much for joining us. you guys were great. welcome information for me being a mom of three and also for our viewers as well. so thank you very much for joining us this sunday morning. >> thank you. >> and thank you all for joining us as well. we hope you have a great rest of your day. thanks for watching "viewpoint." news 4 coming up right now.

right now on "news 4 today," if you don't listen to tom's forecast, you will end p soaked. good morning, i'm angie goff. >> and i'm adam tuss. storm team 4 is tracking showers in your neighborhood and when your plans will be in the clear. score! >> the pens tie up the series. the caps look to bounce back as the team tries to keep their stanley cup dreams alive. the president dropped the mike and he's out. the big moment and late night jabs in a whole holds barred barrage for the commander in chief.