According to instructor Kimberly Gaskill, the students were there for about six hours, and three of them — Brett Smith, Henry Randall and Jaylah Gomez — shared their experiences during a recent interview with the T-R.

“They learn about money management, community, economy, financial literacy and then work and career readiness, so (after) learning all of those things, they go down to JA and they get to put all of those things into practice,” Gaskill said.

During the simulation, Smith served as the president/CEO of a local bank tasked with making important decisions on approving or denying loans, and Randall was the CEO of a distribution center.

“My job was basically to prepare a speech and make sure everyone was doing their job,” he said.

Lenihan sixth graders Brett Smith, left, and Jaylen Meyer, right, work together during the Junior Achievement BizTown ® simulation last Tuesday in Des Moines. The program is designed to give students real life experiences and teach them about jobs, money management, local politics and more.

Gomez was selected to serve as the mayor and kept an eye on the city’s businesses while helping with elections and voting. When asked if she’d like to someday hold the title in Marshalltown, she was noncommittal.

Gaskill said some of the students can gain insight on whether the jobs they’re assigned are ones they might want to someday do in real life — or, conversely, it may help them realize what they don’t want to do.

“It was stressful for them at times, but I think they, in reality, had fun with what they had to do,” she said.

The students, she added, are already asking Gaskill when they can go back and do it again. Sixth grade students get the chance to go once a year. Both Randall and Smith already have visions for their collective future — the latter wants to be an electrician with a beekeeping hobby in his spare time, and Smith wants to get into the family business of farming near Green Mountain. Gomez, on the other hand, is still figuring it out, but she has plenty of time to do it.

In addition to managing the money they’d earned, the students had to invest money in stocks and give to a local charity. Smith, Gomez and Randall said the biggest lessons they learned were about working hard and spending their funds wisely — which Randall joked that he failed at because he bought popcorn for his warehouse employees.

“If you don’t work hard enough, you’re not gonna get what you want,” Gomez said.

Gaskill hopes the session instilled teamwork, trustworthiness and responsibility into the students. To learn more about BizTown, visit https://centraliowa.ja.org/programs/ja-biztown.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.