In many senses, Salisbury Elementary School was the pilot.

On May 19, Pequea Valley School District's Salisbury Elementary hosted Junior Achievement's mobile BizTown, a mock society that allows fifth- and sixth-grade students to work jobs, spend money and participate in civil matters.

Junior Achievement of South Central PA is a local nonprofit that aims to promote entrepreneurship and employment readiness in students. Typically, the organization has brought groups of students to a centralized location for BizTown.

Salisbury Elementary, however, is the second school to have a "mobile" BizTown brought on location to meet students where they are.

"Junior Achievement has three pillars," said Allison Kierce, president and chief operating officer of the organization. "Career readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship. This program has enveloped all three of those pillars."

Students went through an interview process to determine what business would be the best fit for them. Salisbury's town, set up in the gymnasium, featured buildings like a town hall, medical office and construction service; businesses like a restaurant and bank; and both a delivery and fulfillment service.

Media organizations like a newspaper, television station and radio station were also present. The radio station picked and played music to be played throughout town, broadcasting everything from Camilla Cabello to Michael Jackson to Elton John.

Meanwhile, the restaurant made fresh popcorn, and the graphic design outlet made fresh T-shirts and logos for other establishments.

Prior to BizTown coming to Salisbury, students even nominated their peers for honorable roles like mayor and district attorney. After the nominated students wrote short campaign blurbs, teachers then whittled down the nominated students before students voted in a runoff election to determine who filled the seats.

In true Pennsylvania fashion, the construction service immediately shut down a section of the town square for work. A park bench was eventually put into the closed-off space.

"The program began in the classroom with 11 teacher-led lessons," said Thomas Russell, Junior Achievement's chief executive officer. "They've done interviews, they've elected the mayor, they've learned about checking accounts and how they paid, get loans and do taxes ... It's a chance to really understand how a business kind of comes together."

Salisbury's gymnasium was buzzing with students, school administrators and even retired teachers that came back for the day to volunteer with the program. Most students laughed and joked with fellow students while operating their businesses and budgeting their earnings.

"One of the things that we say is that Junior Achievement isn't there to teach," Russell said. "We're there to create sparks ... we want them to say that they're interested in this and want to do this."