Early lessons teach fiscal responsibility

The rush of customers carrying paychecks surprised tellers. Everyone’s confusion over how to fill out deposit slips added to the mess. Then bank President Victoria Correia took charge.
“Please, line up,” she shouted over the din in the bank lobby, as customers complied. “Can these lines be a little neater?”
Soon a police officer appeared for crowd control. Correia, an eighth grader from Woodlawn Catholic Regional School in Pawtucket, returned to reviewing business-loan applications and signing contracts.
“It’s so interesting,” she said, grinning at the thought of possibly doing such work for a living when she gets older. “I’m really enjoying it.”
Correia was one of about 80 students from Woodlawn Catholic Regional and Jewish Community Day School in Providence to inhabit Exchange City last week. It’s a place run solely by schoolchildren getting true-to-life lessons on economics, civics and getting along with others.
Exchange City occupies a 16,000-square-foot room at Johnson & Wales University’s Harborside campus. The room is filled with storefront facades found in any bustling city: a bank, city hall, post office, utility company, newspaper, broadcast center, a restaurant and several stores.
Here’s how it works: Students spend the day role-playing and earning a paycheck – in Exchange City dollars. They spend their earnings at the other stores.
Managers for each business take out a loan to get their operation off the ground. That includes covering expenses such as advertising and buying raw materials. The top priority of the day is to turn a profit big enough to pay off the debt.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officers issue tickets for rule infractions like walking on the artificial grass square at the center of the city – “Just like in real life, sometimes it’s more about revenue enhancement than enforcing the law,” one organizer said. There’s a judge to hear cases for those who plead innocent.
Even in Exchange City, citizens can’t escape taxes, which are levied by the mayor.
“The kids’ goal is paying back the loan by the end of the day,” said Ken Fish, executive director of Rhode Island’s version of Exchange City. “But what I see is the problem-solving, the communication, the teamwork – the real payoff is in the skills that this teaches.”
Exchange City is a concept that got its start in 1980 and has since spread to about 24 locations nationwide. It’s franchised by Experiencia Inc., a Chicago-based educational company that specializes in experiential programs.
Rhode Island’s Exchange City opened in May with the help of the Cody Foundation, a nonprofit education group, and Johnson & Wales, which paid for renovations to accommodate the student-run city at the school’s Paramount Building. The Champlin Foundations also awarded a $375,000 grant.
About 4,000 students have been through Exchange City since it opened. Fish expects another 8,000 students to come through by the end of the school year.
Fish said one of the benefits of the hands-on program is that it shows students how their social studies lessons can be applied outside the classroom. “This place puts all the things they’re learning into a context where the meaning is apparent,” Fish said.
The experience begins long before the students arrive at Exchange City.
Fish said students spend about 30 hours in the classroom on economics and civics lessons that will help them thrive in the big city. Preparations also include applying for jobs at Exchange City businesses, writing resumes and interviewing for positions.
Students name their businesses, receive job training, apply for loans and elect a mayor and a judge ahead of time, too.
Not everybody gets the career they wanted most. Peter Andrews, an eighth grader from the Woodlawn school, donned a blue police uniform at the start of last week’s Exchange City session. It’s a good job, Andrews said, but he was disappointed he wasn’t hired as a disc jockey.
Exchange City organizers provide uniforms for workers such as police officers, but other students arrived last week already dressed for their roles. Nevin Morales, a Woodlawn seventh grader, started his job as vice president of Exchange Piggy Bank looking like a young executive in a suit and tie.
Fish said every session evolves differently – because the students are in control and improvisation is encouraged. So when the mayor wants to suddenly raise taxes, the population can organize a tax revolt – which has happened in the past, Fish said.
And competition for consumer dollars sparks ingenuity. Last week, when sales were lagging behind projections at the Heart Beat Wellness Center, the students running the store moved their display case onto the sidewalk to draw more attention.
Soon, students running the nature store, Green Gardens, caught on and moved their wares, too, to stay competitive.
Just like in the real world, business costs in Exchange City can be high.
Dressed in a white lab coat and cradling a clipboard, seventh-grader Joseph Andrade served as environmental control inspector, ready to fine businesses $1 for violating pollution laws.
Then there are utility costs. Meters in each business track electricity usage, and the utility company issues a bill.
At the Exchange City Times, the news staff rushed to meet a 1:15 p.m. production deadline, writing and editing stories and downloading images for the newspaper.
On the sidewalk outside the newspaper office, police officer Anton Koudriavtsev, a seventh grader from Jewish Community Day, was busy keeping law and order. By noon, he said he fined only one person $2 for running.
Over at the Heart Beat Wellness Center, a customer had his eye on a homemade “Live strong” bracelet. “Purple and orange aren’t my colors,” said Ron Procopio, an adult volunteer who had a few Exchange City dollars to spend. “Do you have green ones?”
He was told he can pay for it ahead of time, then return after a green bracelet was custom made.
Procopio agreed, and the Heart Beat Wellness Center moved $2 closer to paying off its loan.