I got to be Mayor of J.A Biztown

 

In my school, 5th graders get to go to an awesome place called J.A biz town. This is a place where we get to learn about jobs in the real world and get to experience them. These are some companies that provide job experiences at J.A biz town: Swaco, Donatos, Meta and Huntington Bank. As part of this experience, the 5th graders have to choose a mayor of the town. When I heard about this opportunity, I was extremely excited and wanted to run for mayor. There were 2 elections, class election and grade election. I had a few days to prepare a speech. I was voted as the candidate to represent my class in the grade election. There were 4 other 5th graders who were candidates from other classes. We all had to present a speech to the entire grade of 125 students. All the candidates did a great job. I was really happy when I received the most votes and the principal announced my name to the entire school to be the Mayor of J.A Biztown. I was the first girl in 3 years to be a Mayor. 

Here is my speech that I delivered to my grade: 

"Hi, My name is Hanika Chhajer and I am running for the mayor of JA Biztown. For those who don’t know me, I am in Mrs Stevenson's class. It is with great honor and pride, I represent my class today. I would like to first thank you all for listening to me and giving me the chance to convince you to vote for me and elect me as the mayor. Very importantly, I would like to thank all my classmates for their strong support and the reason I stand in front of you today. I would also like to congratulate my fellow running mates: Avery, Ethan, Declan and Jack for representing their classes today. I strongly believe I carry a lot of qualities that will lead to the prosperity of JA Biztown and all community members in it. 

First, let me introduce myself in detail and tell you who I really am. Some of my activities that keep me busy, I enjoy and help me build my personality are swimming, playing the piano, writing blogs and writing poetry. I have been swimming for 8 years now and am currently a part of the Buckeye swim team. We recently won the Ohio University championship. I find a lot of inspiration from my parents. My mom is a dance artist and a United Nations Ambassador in the Dance council and my dad works at Honda and is working on super exciting technology like self driving cars and big drones. I have my own blog which you can visit today at hanikachhajer.com. In my blogs, I interview very interesting people who I then learn from and write about. From my skills and experience, I have learnt the following which I will apply to make JA Biztown which includes all of you successful. 

Some of my qualities are: 

• Listening to feedback and reflecting on it 
• Taking risks 
• Solving problems 
• Facing challenges 
• Standing out by empathizing with people and problems 
• Entrepreneurial 

As you all make your decision, I want you to remember these qualities of mine. I can assure you that I will do my very best and make all of us successful. The last thing I will leave you with is a quote from Ronald Regan, the 40th US President of the US. He said, “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. That leader gets the people to do the greatest things”. This is what I strongly believe in. I am looking forward to the opportunity to spend time with all of you at JA Biztown and learning a lot through this experience. Thank you again for listening to me. VOTE HANIKA today!"

The day finally came when I got to go to J.A Biztown. I am very excited to share that experience with you. It was a 30 minute bus ride from our school to the town. I was super excited to be an adult for one day. When we entered the building we sat at our tables with our jobs listed on it. I sat at the table that said city hall. We got little checkbooks that we could use later in the day. Then we got to go to our shops where we would be working for the rest of the day. The structure and even the area just made my jaw drop, I was in awe. Inside city hall I was working very diligently with my co-workers. We each had a checklist given to us and we had to finish everything before we left biztown. I had a lot of work in my hands and here are some of the things I did at biz town as mayor. I approved different business products, helped my treasurer/CFO pay bills from other companies and myself and the other CEO’s had to give speeches at lunch so I had to prepare my speech. 

Here is my speech at lunch: 

"Hello everyone my name is Hanika and I am your mayor at city hall. I hope every one of you are enjoying your day at J.A biztown. I would like to thank all of the WRES teachers for letting us learn and get to explore this new experience. I really appreciate all of you for working so hard today. Remember that hard work pays off in the end. Let's continue to enjoy our day. I would lastly like to thank you for your time."

After lunch everyone got to spend some money and buy things from all the other shops. I bought two things and donated 18 cents to the Columbus foundation. I bought a wallet from Discover for $8 and a keychain from IGS energy for $3. Finally, our day at J.A Biztown came to an end and we all headed back to school. 

I am really happy that I got to experience J.A biztown and especially being its mayor. On this day, I learnt so many things. First and foremost, I had many responsibilities, so I had to manage my time appropriately so I could complete all my tasks. Through the day, I had to make decisions on various city topics such as taxes, people stealing and business products. I experienced various challenges but got to work with a team to solve those problems. On this day, I felt like I was an adult. I would really like to thank my teachers for giving me the opportunity to get to experience J.A Biztown. I hope to get other such opportunities in the future.