Eighth graders and sophomores participated in a career and spending simulation where they had to think like 26-year-olds Monday.
Students chose a career, education, whether to have children or get married, and had to pay rent, bills, child care, clothes, transportation, insurance and more.
The program – Reality U – travels to over 100 schools across the state, director Patrick Sehl said. This is Eudora’s first year participating with the help of the Eudora Schools Foundation.
Community members and local business owners helped run each station and helped students calculate expenses and make purchases. Students had to determine if their costs were too excessive and what needs took priority.
Sehl, who’s been working for Reality U for about eight years, said the exercise gives students hands-on experiential learning instead of a lecture. Getting to bring it to rural communities is especially important to him, he said.
“The access to a simulation where kids can connect what I do in school and why it matters in my financial future, that it’s my attitude and effort that can really move the needle for them,” he said. “It is exciting, and that’s why it’s loud in the gym today because I’m not telling them where to go. They get to choose.”
He hopes students can have a general awareness of how expensive things are and express gratitude to someone who’s been taking care of them.
Students had already filled out a questionnaire deciding what career path and life decisions they wanted to make, so students came in with a paycheck and had to make decisions accordingly, even down to spending money on hair, nails and dog toys.
Community member Grant High helped students save for their emergency fund at all four sessions Monday. The event serves as an important lesson for young people, he said.
“Really I am participating because I am always frustrated that kids lack basic financial skills, and I always say if you’re going to complain about something you need to do something about it, too,” High said.
As a graduate of Eudora schools himself, he said this is a way he can give back to his community.
Middle School Principal Jeremy Thomas said he thinks the simulation will give students a real look at money management.They’re life skills, but it’ll also help them prepare for high school, he said.
It also ties in with other work middle schoolers have been doing to help prepare for the future, like the career fair they had last week.
“It’s, ‘Yeah, I want to have this big job. I want to spend all this money,’ but this is kind of a reality check of, ‘Hey, this is life,’” he said.
It’s also good to see the community support the activity and volunteer their time to help, he said.
Eighth grader Ethan Dietz said the most shocking part of the day was how expensive everything was, in particular utilities.
When asked what he learned, he said, “That life’s hard, and I have to work hard to make it easier.”
Abby Aronhalt, also an eighth grader, said the simulation taught her and her grade maturity and how to problem solve.
She said she learned just how expensive child care is, especially if you have multiple kids.
Austin Strickland agreed with her classmate and said the activity provided a true day-in-the-life experience of an adult.
“Probably the most shocking is getting the house and then the electricity because my power went out, so then I had to pay for that,” she said.
She said it taught her a lot as she’d never done anything similar before.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].
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