We are fortunate to have many Curbell employees who support learning within our communities. Below Mike Russo, Sr. Financial Reporting Manager, shares his experiences with Junior Achievement (JA) and a recent class exercise he led.
Today’s class was an exercise to demonstrate the relationship between buyers and sellers in a free market, where half the class were buyers and half sellers, each with certain profit goals.
For Junior Achievement this is my second semester as an instructor. The goal of JA is to provide students with certain life skills, focused around finance, that are not otherwise taught as part of the traditional curriculum. At the early grade levels we focus on simple skills like understanding the value of money, managing household expenses, balancing a checkbook. I currently am presenting the economics curriculum to a class of high school seniors at Orchard Park High school.
I also volunteer as a ‘day trader’ in the annual stock market challenge, which Curbell is a sponsor. Junior Achievement is a great avenue for me to volunteer my time and share my professional life experiences, hopefully to the benefit of my students! JA provides a great opportunity for students to connect the concepts learned in the classroom to the practical examples of the business world. I am very grateful that Curbell has and continues to support my involvement in such a worthwhile organization.