closed<\/a> in 2024 as part of budget right-sizing. At that time, Superintendent Tabitha Branum said district officials promised to continue to invest in Greenwood Hills.<\/p>\n\u201cWe have taken a space that, if we allowed, could be empty of dreams, and instead it hosts a whole new generation of dreams,\u201d Branum said.<\/p>\n
The center was first conceived as a new version of RISD\u2019s former Enterprise City, said Angie Lee, RISD\u2019s executive director of student success and leadership, but she said the result has surpassed that original vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, [students] won\u2019t just learn about careers, financial literacy, leadership and community,\u201d Lee said at the ribbon cutting. \u201cThey will have the opportunity to experience them, practice them and begin to see themselves in possibilities they may not have imagined before.\u201d<\/p>\n
A closer look<\/p>\n
JA Biztown is made up of an array of businesses and interactive storefronts, where students will work as architects, construction managers, insurance agents, city staff and more to keep their \u201ctown\u201d running.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re making decisions, they\u2019re working together, they\u2019re learning and developing soft skills,\u201d LaTurno said. \u201cThose experiences can change the way a young person sees their future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biztown includes real companies like architecture firm Glenn Partners, CORE Construction, State Farm and Toyota, as well as spaces for a City Hall, bistro and boutique,<\/p>\n
LaTurno said students will experience weeks of curriculum in the classroom to prepare them ahead of entering the Discovery Center.<\/p>\n
In its first year, LaTurno said every fifth grade and seventh grade student in RISD will experience the center, totaling roughly 5,000 students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make a promise to the students who are here that will walk through these doors,\u201d LaTurno said. \u201cWe will help you see a future that you might not be able to see yet, and then give you the skills, experiences and confidence to go further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richardson ISD students will soon be able to explore careers, finances and business in a hands-on environment at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[146314,910,163,146313,138043,919,146316,146315,146312,160,162,161,959,5810,5809],"class_list":["post-420017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-biztown","tag-business","tag-education","tag-enterprise-city","tag-experiential-learning","tag-finance","tag-greenwood-hills","tag-ja-discovery-center","tag-junior-achievement-of-dallas","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-richardson","tag-richardson-isd","tag-risd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}