As reported by the Baltimore Sun,
The new facility will more than double the capacity of Junior Achievement’s current 12,000-square-foot building on Red Run Boulevard, where the organization has operated for 20 years, said Jennifer Bodensiek, the nonprofit’s president and chief executive officer. The move will triple student capacity in the facility from 10,000 to 30,000 students, Bodensiek said.
BizTown, which is paired with a specialized curriculum taught in partnering schools, will take up 10,000 square feet in the new Lansdowne building, and serves as a precursor to the nonprofit’s new Finance Park program for middle school students, also planned to take up 10,000 square feet in the new facility, Bodensiek said.
Finance Park “takes [BizTown] and it bumps it up a notch,” said Katie Ballance, Junior Achievement of Central Maryland’s marketing director. Students in that program “talk about housing, auto, insurance, clothing and dining out. They get a real-life scenario — how much money they make, how many kids — and work that budget through all the categories, just like adults do.”
Manis Canning & Associates represents Junior Achievement of Central Maryland and has successfully advocated for funding on their behalf to support this project.
Maryland General Assembly House Speaker Adrienne Jones said in a statement that the new regional center is “a major step in our work to ensure that every student in Maryland is college and career ready” by equipping “students with practical life skills that they will use well into adulthood.”
“I’m thrilled that they will have a new home in Baltimore County,” said Jones, a Lansdowne High School graduate.
