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Greetings,
It's always an encouraging experience to watch students learn how to make financial decisions and this year was no exception. For the seventh year in a row, I had the opportunity to help middle school students as they struggled with real-life financial challenges.
The Reality Store is an interactive financial program where middle school students role play young adults. As I welcomed the fifth through eighth graders to the program, I started off by explaining that they were now 27 years old with an education, a job, and a monthly income. They were also assigned a marital and family status. Armed with this information, the students made their way through stations around the room and began to make tough financial decisions about life.
Students visited stations to pay taxes, open a checking account, buy or rent a house, pay a student loan, buy groceries, pay for health insurance, choose childcare, and buy clothes. At each station they used a budget sheet and a calculator to keep track of each expense and subtract it from that month's income.
As financial guru-at-large, I observed students at many of the different booths. I overheard one young girl saying, "If I become a hairdresser, I won't have enough money to live on." A volunteer shared with her that she could study to become a cosmetologist, then use this skill to work her way through college and maybe pursue a degree in business. With a degree in business she might be able to own a chain of salons. I saw the girl's eyes brighten as she asked, "I really can do all of that?"
One young man traveled from booth to booth, with a very serious look on his face. He was starting to perspire and I heard him tell one of the volunteers, "Now I know why my mom is always sweating when she pays the bills!"
As part of the Midwest Association of Financial Aid Administrators Early Awareness Program, this year's Reality Store was at Frederick Douglass School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Arnold Woods, one of my co-chairs, said he noticed how conservative students' spending habits became after a few of their friends ended up with no money. "Even students with ample funds by the time they reached the entertainment and extras stations were spending less."
Being a part of the Reality Store is one of the ways that I hope to help foster financial literacy among our students. Students who know how to make smart financial decisions are able to open more doors to build brighter futures for themselves.
Until next time,
La Toya Sykes, Director
Outreach and Access Awareness
Click a link below to view past Opening Doors articles.
