One thing fourth-graders in Melanie Ragsdale’s class learned Monday morning is that Wyoming is no place for a “surfboard shop.”

“That’s why I put my surfboard shop in Florida,” said Trevor Ellis, one of Ragsdale’s students at Irving Elementary School.

Irving students in all grades spent Monday learning all sorts of things about business, communities and money management as part of Junior Achievement’s “J.A. in a Day” program. Their teachers were 50 student-volunteers from the Bacone College wrestling team

The wrestlers went, two to a room, to each classroom and spent the day teaching lessons about different jobs, how communities work and how businesses work. The wrestlers helped with the program as part of their community service commitment.

“This is a team-building exercise for us,” Bacone wrestling coach Brent Oleson said. “It gives us the opportunity to get out into the community and let them see who we are. And working with kids is much more rewarding than cleaning out a ditch.”

“I’m not sure who’s having more fun, the big kids or the little kids,” said Lisa Harris, Oklahoma district manager for Junior Achievement.

Wrestlers Jared Steinbach and Dylan Snavely spent Monday teaching Ragsdale’s students about the relationship between natural, human and capital resources in different parts of the country. Part of the class involved having students choose a state where they wanted to locate their business.

“We got them to match up their businesses and where they wanted to be,” Snavely said, explaining that students learned what parts of the country are best for certain businesses.

“One student wanted a surfboard shop in Wyoming,” he said.

Steinbach said it was pretty easy to teach the kids from the Junior Achievement material.

“Some of it you learn in high school,” he said. “It’s broken down into different sections. It gives kids an idea how simple economics can be.”

Ragsdale said she sees her students “learning a lot about geography and the regions of the country.”

“It teaches them about jobs and businesses and what is necessary for them,” she said. “It’s making the students think about other things than just ‘right now.’ I’m really impressed with the wide variety of things they’re learning.”

Harris said Junior Achievement volunteers usually spread the lessons out over five sessions.

“We found it was easier for many of our volunteers to teach in one day,” she said.

Irving third-graders learned about banks, houses, stores, offices and other parts of a city. They even got to make little buildings for their city.

“I put a car at my bank and the person is inside,” Katie Maiorino said as she showed off her buildings.

Wrestler Kodee Varnell said the third-graders he taught “were a little shy at the beginning, but they knew what to expect.”



Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com