Gold Star Law Supports Junior Achievement Program to Increase Financial Literacy Among Metro Detroit Students

January 23, 2015 /3BL Media/ - Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan (JA) - part of the world's largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs – received funding from Gold Star Law to support its Finance Park program.  

Established in 2003, JA Finance Park is one of Junior Achievement's most successful programs, and more than 1 million students across the United States have gone through the hands-on program since it first began. The month-long economics education program introduces personal financial planning and career exploration to middle and high school students, helping them build a foundation for making intelligent, lifelong, personal financial decisions.

Gold Star Law’s financial support will provide educational materials to support the program and cover the operating costs of the JA Finance Park facility for two middle schools to participate. Funding will impact approximately 250 students from metro Detroit schools.

The program begins with in-school teacher taught curriculum providing students with financial education to ensure success during the JA Finance Park simulation. The curriculum covers debit versus credit, salaries and taxes, financial institutions, investing, budgeting, and a chance to explore different career opportunities and the education requirements for these careers.

Following these lessons, students visit Quicken Loans JA Finance Park. In this high-tech, hands-on environment, students become an adult for the day and immerse themselves in real-world simulations through which they are assigned a salary, interact with merchants, and can make payments via issued debit cards.

“Gold Star Law is thrilled to be supporting JA Finance Park,” said Maia Johnson, Attorney at Gold Star Law. “Normally, we help people who are already active members of the workforce handle disputes with employers.  It was refreshing to mentor students as they prepare themselves for future careers and financial responsibilities. This is a great program that gives students the opportunity for hands-on experience with the realities of economic independence, and we are happy to be a part of it.”

To celebrate the partnership, 8 Gold Star Law employees mentored students at the Park today. Each employee guided approximately 10 students during their journeys throughout the day, helping them develop and stick to budgets based on their assigned fictional life situation.

“JA Finance Park provides a foundation for financial education at an early age in a manner that is substantive and fun,” said Paul Polizzotto, president and founder, CBS EcoMedia. “Gold Star Law’s financial support through our EducationAd program is critical to help Junior Achievement create meaningful, real-world opportunities for learning that pave the way for student success as they progress through school and on to college and career.”

For more information about Junior Achievement Finance Park, please visit http://jamichigan.org.

About Gold Star Law
Gold Star Law is a Michigan-based employment law firm that represents employees in lawsuits against their former and present employers.  Gold Star Law handles all types of workplace issues, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour violations, and wrongful termination.  The firm represents individual employees as well as groups of employees in collective and class actions.  Gold Star Law is committed to providing quality representation and counsel to its clients through tailoring its services to meet each client’s circumstances and needs and by providing professional, efficient, and competent legal representation to employees who have been subjected to unlawful workplace practices or conditions.

About Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan
Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan (JASEM) provides critical educational programs to students in Genesee, Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Saint Clair, Shiawassee, Washtenaw and Wayne counties. Chartered in 1949, JA has linked students, volunteers and supporters for over 60 years touching the lives of more than 1.5 million young people. JASEM is based in Detroit and reaches K-12 students with proven, quality educational programs that provide an understanding of financial concepts, a vision of economic opportunity, and a reason to stay in school. Inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy, JASEM programs are critical to students in the most under-served communities.

About CBS EcoMedia Inc.
At EcoMedia, we’re propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that’s been our mission since we founded the company in 2002.  In 2010, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive, publishing and outdoor media. 

Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide.  In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change.  Please visit ecomediacbs.com, like us at facebook.com/EcoMediaCBS or follow us at Twitter.com/EcoMediaCBS.

By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities.  EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.