An illustration of Junior Achievement's planned Experiential Learning Center at Florida State College at Jacksonville's downtown campus. | JA
Published on January 20, 2026 at 2:23 pm
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A new Junior Achievement Experiential Learning Center will be established at the Downtown campus of Florida State College at Jacksonville.
The new learning center is projected to serve more than 30,000 students annually across Northeast Florida when its services begin next fall.
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The partnership, announced Tuesday, includes a 50-year land lease agreement that represents a long-term investment in Jacksonville’s students, workforce and regional economy, officials say. It will bring career-connected learning to help students run businesses, earn paychecks, manage budgets and explore career pathways through interactive exhibits and simulations.
“The (Experiential Learning Center) reflects what’s possible when education, business and community come together around a shared goal: preparing young people for choice-filled futures,” Junior Achievement of North Florida President Shannon Italia said in a news release. “This long-term partnership with FSCJ gives our community the foundation we need to build an experiential learning hub that strengthens student outcomes and supports a future-ready workforce.”
Junior Achievement’s ‘living classroom’
The JA Experiential Learning Center is planned as a state-of-the-art immersive facility, what JA calls a “living classroom” where the gap between school and the region’s workforce disappears. The center will feature student-sized “towns” that include interactive exhibits and simulations where students learn about the future and practice it, JA said.
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That includes simulated “town storefronts” where students learn about real companies and industries in Northeast Florida, and learn “unexplored and emerging careers of the future,” the program website said.
The center will build on JA’s Florida-aligned curriculum to help students develop financial capability, workforce readiness skills and career confidence. It also will create a program that connects elementary and secondary students to postsecondary education, career pathways and lifelong learning.
“This partnership embodies FSCJ’s commitment to serving as an educational anchor for our community,” FSCJ President John Avendano said in the news release. “By welcoming the Junior Achievement Experiential Learning Center to our Downtown Campus, we are expanding exposure and opportunity for young students across Jacksonville while strengthening the connection between early learning, college and career.”
About 4,000 volunteers and 200-plus companies are expected to engage in the program each year.
Design and engineer planning for the center are underway, with construction targeted to begin later this year and a soft opening projected for next fall.
According to the center’s website, Junior Achievement needs $9 million of its $15 million fundraising campaign to break ground. It has raised $4 million to date.
