O n any given school day, 200 employees roam a Tempe cityscape, hard at work. There are doctors and marketing professionals, TV producers and bank tellers, folks manning the counter at Cane’s. Only they aren’t your typical workforce. They’re fourth through sixth graders at BizTown, the pint-sized workplace at Junior Achievement of Arizona. The program teaches students how an economy works, their role as both workers and consumers, and what it’s like to be contributing members of society for a day. But it’s a lot more than fun and games. “We are teaching financial literacy, entrepreneurship, work readiness and about the flow of goods and services,” said Katherine Kemmeries Cecala, the CEO of Junior Achievement of Arizona. Cecala knows a thing or two about these topics. An industrial engineer and lawyer by training, she holds an MBA and has served as chief operating officer of Valley of the Sun United Way and interim CEO of Friendly House. But when she learned about the Learning EARNING From to Junior Achievement of Arizona gives kids the skills they need to succeed 22 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2019 COVER STORY {by karen werner }

“One of the things that makes Junior Achievement so great is that kids get to experience what they’re doing, so they feel it inside,” said Katherine Kemmeries Cecala. “That’s why the lessons stick.”