Guest contributor, Catherine Pulver, Vice President of District Operations & Strategic Initiatives with Junior Achievement of Central Upstate New York shares how her organization was able to reimagine and successfully transition an in-person event to a virtual event amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.

Tell us about the event that you had to transition from in-person to virtual.

The JA Stock Market Challenge is a multi-faceted program that we launched a year ago to fill a need in our community around teaching the fundamentals of the stock market to high school students. Investing and how the stock market works is a subject that doesn’t get as much attention in students’ financial literacy education, yet we know how important it is to their futures. Whether it be personally investing or accepting a job with a 401(k) benefit or HSA account, we wanted young people to be knowledgeable and comfortable with the dynamics of investing.

Schools that participate in the program have the chance to access JA curriculum led by mentors from financial organizations throughout our community, as well as participate in a live, simulated stock exchange event. The live event is an exciting component for the students as they become actively engaged in managing the highs and lows of the market over a simulated 60-day timeframe.

This year, we would have had over 250 students participating in the classroom activities and the live event in early April—a 48% increase over last year. Define proof that teachers and students want this type of hands-on educational experience. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the live event could not proceed as planned, and we quickly turned our attention toward other options.

How long did you wait to decide to transition the event?

The discussions to transition the live event into a virtual event started in mid-March as we began to understand the impact of COVID-19 on our school districts and corporate partners. We spent several weeks’ fact gathering and testing virtual sites, such as Market Watch, to ensure we had a reliable way for students to compete and stay true to what the JA Stock Market Challenge was developed to do, which was put into practice the JA lessons from the classroom.

What steps did you take to make the event virtual?

Our top priority was ensuring that we were providing a quality experience for the students, and using tools/resources that were reliable and authentic. We consulted with the financial analysts and portfolio managers on our Board of Directors and on our Stock Market Committee to get their input, and then we ran a test competition amongst the team to ensure the simulation operated at a comparable level to the live competition. At the same time, we worked with our education partners to determine students’ interest level in a virtual event -- which was a resounding yes! We then set the timeframe of the competition, invited the students to join, and notified our sponsors.

Have you seen a difference in engagement from participants and/or donors? How is the reimagined event being received?

The commitment of participants and donors has been overwhelmingly positive. In the early days, after suspending this event, and all other JA classroom-based programming, we were focused primarily on the health and safety of our team, volunteers, educators, and students. However, I think all of these partners quickly realized that things would likely not return to normal any time soon, and we would need new strategies to help students learn these important skills at home.

As the weeks ensued, we heard from multiple teachers that it was important to keep as many things constant for the students as possible. Many activities that students had looked forward to, both educational and social, had been cancelled. It was at this point, we knew we had to create a new, meaningful opportunity for our teens. The good news was we were experienced at running technology-based programs in a virtual format. You may recall the JA Titan of Business Challenge event, of which Manning & Napier has also sponsored over the years. The JA Titan program is a virtual business simulation where students become the CEO of a technology company. It has the capability for teens to compete in real-time virtually against other students to test their skills at leading a company. In any given year, we have 400 students compete virtually, to qualify for a spot at the in-person Challenge (only 100 students make it to finals).

When our sponsors heard the teacher and student feedback, combined with JA’s experience in delivering programs virtually, they were very supportive of moving forward with a new format.

What is the most difficult aspect of turning an event into a virtual experience? Are there any aspects that are easier than holding the event in person?

We were very mindful about keeping true to what we had set out to do when the JA Stock Market Challenge was established—bring a quality learning experience to students around investing. Everyone involved in the event was focused on how important it is to provide a foundation for long-term investing strategies and portfolio management, versus immediate, short-term gains, and we worked really hard on developing quality curriculum that met the high standards of our partners. In addition, we knew how important the energy and excitement of a live event was and didn’t want to lose the value behind it. When we made the decision to pivot toward the virtual event, our team was aware that we might lose some of the spark of a live event but felt compelled to continue to provide an option given teacher feedback.

Needless to say, we have been pleasantly surprised at the results so far and how engaged the students are in the competition. Alex Seiler from Victor High School, who is participating in the virtual event said, “I love it! It’s taught me a lot more about the stock market. It’s really cool but really risky. I’ve learned if it’s a short-term challenge, it’s a high-risk reward, you gotta go for it all!” His enthusiasm definitely supports that our decision to go virtual was the right thing for the students and was worth the trade-off of hosting the live event. Like all of us, however, when given the opportunity to come back together, we hope to make the live event even better.

Do you think you will continue to adapt any events or programming even after the pandemic is over?

Yes, JA is currently adapting all of our events and classroom-based programs to meet the needs of our educators and students in the 2020-2021 academic year. We will have a solution for whatever the learning landscape looks like – whether it be in-person, virtual, remote, or any combination thereof. This flexible strategy will be the key to continuing to provide impactful educational experiences to students and keep our business volunteers activity engaged in mentoring.

While so much has changed, one thing that hasn’t is the importance of hands-on experiences that bring relevance to traditional academic lessons in Math, English Language Arts, and Social Studies, to name a few. Our programs and volunteers are such a vibrant and vital resource to a student’s education, and we plan to seamlessly continue to deliver our mission– to prepare and inspire youth for success in a global economy - this Fall!

How are you adapting your day-to-day programming/curriculum?

More than five years ago, JA launched a transformative strategy to move our programs from primarily “paper-based” to digital, “blended” learning content that can be easily integrated into a technology-enabled classroom. Prior to the current crisis, much of our high school and middle grades programs had already been transformed into this digital format and delivered on our proprietary Learning Management System (“LMS”).

The circumstances of COVID-19 precipitated the rollout of adapted digital content for our K-5 grades as well as middle and high school programs that were not yet reimagined for the LMS. We also aggressively accelerated various alternative volunteer delivery initiatives that were in the works, including virtual and remote volunteering. In addition, JA developed a plethora of independent 30-minute to one-hour on-line experiences for grades K-12 around financial literacy, workforce readiness and entrepreneurship, as well as whitepapers for parents to easily talk to their kids of all ages about the impact of the pandemic.

Most of our resources are aligned with local districts’ learning standards, so we hope we are a go-to resource for fun, turnkey and independent learning during the summer months.

To learn more about available resources for parents, teachers, and students, as well as opportunities to get involved, please visit: www.jacuny.org.

Manning & Napier is not affiliated with Junior Achievement.