Junior Achievement Launches Online Business Simulator for Students

$1.2 Million Gift from Best Buy Children's Foundation Fuels JA's Already Powerful Program

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., May 7, 2003 -- CEOs of the future will get an early start making key business decisions through JA Titan, an online business simulation created by Junior Achievement. Sponsored by the Best Buy Children's Foundation, JA Titan offers a fresh new take on business games. Set in the year 2030, the simulation allows high school students to run their own companies, "manufacture" and "sell" a fictional high-tech product called a Holo-Generator(TM), and compete for market share against other players.

JA Titan is offered in two versions: a school edition, complete with lesson plans and administrative tools for teachers, and a public edition called Best Buy / JA Titan, available to anyone via the Internet. Both versions are located at http://titan.ja.org .

"JA Titan gives teens a fun, interactive glimpse into the exciting and challenging world of business," said Susan Hoff, President of the Best Buy Children's Foundation. "The Best Buy Children's Foundation is dedicated to providing high tech, innovative educational tools like JA Titan to teens. The knowledge they can acquire through the game not only gives them a quality grasp of industry fundamentals, but also better prepares them for real-life careers."

"Best Buy's involvement with JA Titan demonstrates their commitment to JA's mission of giving every child in America a fundamental understanding of the free enterprise system," said David S. Chernow, president and CEO of Junior Achievement. "Students will enjoy playing it, and teachers will enjoy teaching it."

Coupled with the presence of a classroom volunteer, one appeal of JA Titan promises to be in its many uses. Designed to complement high school economics, social studies, or advanced placement classes, JA Titan encourages fair but competitive behavior.

At its core, the simulation lets students make decisions on price, production, capital investment, research and development, and marketing. It also allows students to compete against computer players, other students, or both. Using a fun storyline, the program incorporates colorful new characters to offer players advice through a futuristic feature called "Video Instant Messenger." Much like a real CEO of the future, players receive important messages from an ever-watchful board chair or from employees themselves.

Through the new program, teachers and volunteers will be given access to detailed lesson plans, as well as easy-to-use tools to set economic parameters or create economic scenarios such as recessions or recoveries. The free program helps students learn skills such as analyzing situations, applying information under time pressures, charting data, consensus building, critical thinking, decision making, giving reports, interpreting data, math computation, reading, and teamwork.

A longtime supporter of Junior Achievement, Best Buy Children's Foundation also supports JA's National Job Shadow Day, a program that lets students "shadow" employees to learn about careers and the workplace. In February 2002, Best Buy and the Best Buy Children's Foundation donated $1.2 million to Junior Achievement Inc. to redesign a less comprehensive JA Titan, originally launched in February 2000. The new JA Titan was programmed by developers from Walnut Creek, California-based Red i Studios.

About Junior Achievement

Junior Achievement is the world's largest and fastest-growing organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and free enterprise. Through age-appropriate curricula, JA programs begin at the elementary school level, teaching children how they can impact the world around them as individuals, workers and consumers. JA programs continue through the middle and high school grades, preparing students for additional key economic and workforce issues they will face in the future. Today JA reaches more than four million students through 150 offices nationwide and another two million students in more than 100 countries worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.ja.org .

About The Best Buy Children's Foundation

The Best Buy Children's Foundation, operated by Minneapolis-based Best Buy Co., Inc., was founded in 1994 to enhance the quality of life for school-age children in communities where Best Buy has a presence. The Foundation supports the development and delivery of innovative and technology-based educational curriculum and content, and makes education accessible to graduating high school seniors through Best Buy Scholarships. Best Buy is North America's leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances. The Company's subsidiaries operate retail stores and commercial web sites under the names: Best Buy (BestBuy.com), Future Shop (FutureShop.ca), Geek Squad (GeekSquad.com), Magnolia Hi-Fi (MagnoliaHiFi.com), Media Play (MediaPlay.com), Sam Goody (SamGoody.com), and Suncoast (Suncoast.com). The Company's subsidiaries reach consumers through nearly 1,900 retail stores in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

SOURCE Junior Achievement

Web Site: http://www.ja.org