The staff at the Paychex Junior Achievement Discovery Center loves to line up inside their simulated town and watch children’s faces as the doors open. Program coordinator Milla Litzburg prepares sixth graders in the staging area before releasing them into the miniature replica of the city of Rochester, one group at a time. Eyes wide, mouths open, fists pumping in the air—the students have been anticipating this moment for months.
“I love watching the kids walk in,” says program assistant Anna Winters. “It’s like Christmas morning!” When students enter the 18,000 square foot learning lab, located in the Kodak Center, they are met by the iconic Welcome to Rochester sign. From the aqueduct to the Erie Canal and Genesee River, everything here mirrors the landmarks that they have been learning about in school.
Students walk through the town, past Paychex, UR Medicine, LiDestri, and other local businesses, until they find their own company’s storefront and get right to work. Each CFO takes out a loan to pay employees, and teams come up with marketing strategies and advertise their products. Students at LeChase apply for building permits and measure a space for a community basketball court.
Everyone gathers for a town meeting where each CEO gives a speech, and elected mayors are officially sworn in. Then it’s back to work for a quick staff meeting and every CEO signs paychecks. Groups from each business take turns visiting the bank and voting booth.
At Five Star Bank, Maggie Elliott, a retired elementary school librarian, leads a discussion, showing students how to deposit paychecks. They will have to be accurate when handing out cash and putting money into savings accounts. As a program assistant, Elliott witnesses the impact on the students. “Even if they don’t get everything, they’re exposed to so many lessons here.”
Khloe, one of the tellers, is having a blast checking IDs, depositing money into savings accounts, and handing out Bizbucks, saying, “I knew working at the bank would be fun.” She hands cash to a construction worker from LeChase and says, “Have a nice day!”
It’s time for a lunch break before everyone gets to become consumers in the economy, taking turns visiting businesses and spending their Bizbucks on real goods and services.
Biztown may be new to Rochester, but Junior Achievement was founded in 1919, delivering financial literacy, workforce preparedness and entrepreneurship programs to middle grade classrooms by 1975. With more than 100 chapters across the nation, two of the most popular programs are Biztown and Finance Park. Both are cumulative programs, containing thirteen in-classroom lessons followed by a day-long visit to the Discovery Center.
JA Biztown allows elementary school students to operate banks, manage restaurants, write checks, and vote for mayor. Students are able to connect the dots between what they learn in school and the real world. JA Finance Park is focused on personal financial planning and career exploration. Students develop and commit to a personal budget and make decisions after being given a scenario complete with job, credit score, housing, family, and financial obligations. High school students can return to complete a more advanced version of Finance Park where they select their career and define their future lifestyle and financial goals.
Director Ramona Englebrecht got involved when this space was an empty gymnasium, working with local businesses to create storefronts and 150 job descriptions. “This is an equalizer,” she says. “We are dedicated to making sure all kids get to have this immersive experience.”
The experiential and inquiry based learning aligns with state standards while reaching all types of students. Englebrecht recounts the day she noticed a student completely engrossed with the VR equipment at RG&E. He said, “I love my job.” His teacher was crying; it was the first time she had heard him speak.
President & CEO Patricia Leva says, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” Leva is constantly evaluating the program, the first of its kind in New York State, to ensure that kids are leaving with the knowledge and confidence to make smart economic choices. Her goal is to inspire them to create their own success.
“Rochester has a high level of generational poverty,” Leva says. “Here, kids get to open a bank account, become an employee. When they get into those roles, they can envision the future.” Every sixth grader from the Rochester City School District will visit Biztown this year and every seventh grader will visit Finance Park. Leva’s goal is to get every child back in for the advanced program once they reach high school to continue to build on that learning.
Biztown feels like fun but is steeped in structured curriculum. Here, students get to live out the answers to questions like: What can my role be? How does a community work together? Leva says her favorite part is seeing the “aha” moments and hearing about the impact from teachers and parents who often report kids coming home and asking to open a bank account.
At the end of the day, students reflect on what they loved and learned during their hands-on experience. Overwhelmingly, kids report that they loved having jobs and responsibilities. They also love working together to build plans, sell products and shop.
Sixth grader Mapendo spent the day as the CEO of Marks Pizzeria. “If I could be here again, I would!” Eternity, her graphic designer, says, “I’m here for the breadsticks.” Whatever the motivation, that day it was clear how much everyone was learning, a culmination of all the lessons they had done in preparation for the visit.
Most kids talked about learning responsibility and teamwork as well as communication and problem solving. Students said they learned how to vote, how to sign a check, and how the roles they held were hard work but now they knew they could do it.
For more information, visit cuny.ja.org.
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of (585) Kids.
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