Northvail Students Get Education in Economics

Friday was Junior Achievement Day at Parsippany's Northvail Elementary School. Business volunteers from New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Group helped present practical, hands-on activities throughout the school day to introduce kids to important economic principles. 

Junior Achievement is a national economics education program that brings business leaders into classrooms while reinforcing reading, writing and math and other academic skills. Volunteers from NJM Insurance Group on Littleton Road, working with teachers, provided lessons to Northvail's 1st through 5th grades on concepts such as supply and demand, profit and scarcity. Activities gave the students opportunities to use information, apply basic skills, think critically and solve complex problems. 

Grade level-specific JA curricula are used in the classroom. In the 4th grade program, for instance, NJM Insurance Group President and CEO Bernie M. Flynn and his assistant, Mimi Stepek, led kids in a discussion on how capital, human and natural resources affect the nation’s future.

According to Junior Achievement of New Jersey, 162 schools and more than 35,000 New Jersey students are involved in JA.