Junior Chamber International of Santa Clarita hosted its third ever “Get Real: Adulting 101” through the William S. Hart Union High School District, hosting it at Bowman High School for the first time on Feb. 28.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., nearly 200 students walked across the street throughout the day to The Child & Family Center to participate in the financial education simulation.
Through the four 45- to 60-minute simulations, 40 students at a time would “randomly pick up a paper that has a new identity and gives them a first name, last name, occupation, income, credit score and family life status,” according to Pam Thompson, social-emotional and workforce prep teacher, as well as work experience coordinator at Bowman.
Through the stations that featured real-life professionals in housing, food, utilities, child care, shopping, transportation, entertainment and financial planning, students would take their budget sheets and make a decision, then go back to the bank, according to Thompson.
Once students felt comfortable with their financial decisions, volunteers conducted reality checks, insisting that students choose from a deck of cards — blindly choosing between concepts such as a flat tire or refund check, depending on the cards dealt on the spot.
One might think the simulation was very similar, both literally and metaphorically, to “The Game of Life.”
Kari McCoy, executive vice president of JCI, spent up to a year planning with Thompson to ensure the event was a success. Thompson, who had seen the program with her children in September 2022, thought the program could be really valuable for the Bowman juniors and seniors.
“We did this because we feel like students aren’t learning enough about financial literacy in ways that are applicable to their lives, and that are also engaging and memorable,” McCoy said. “So the goal of this game is so that students can walk away with a better understanding of how to spend their money conscientiously or creatively, and that they end up with more in their pocket.”
McCoy, a counselor at Mission View Public Charter, was inspired to create events like this after she saw a trend in students’ financial misconceptions.
“My students will tell me that they only need $1,000 to move out of their mother’s house and work at Six Flags,” McCoy said. “So I see huge gaps in their understanding about how much money they need to be having monthly for their regular spending habits.”
Thompson described the most rewarding part of the program being the student engagement, as well as how difficult it was to logistically organize an event this large without a multipurpose room.
“Student engagement was the best. They took it to heart and set themselves to go and make financial decisions and stay within their budget that fits their personal goals and their family lifestyle,” Thompson. “The biggest challenge was we do not have a space, we only have classrooms. We had to get over 160 permission slips for them to walk across the street. Those logistics were very challenging.”
The event was shown to be worth it, as seniors Mia Blanco, 17, Isabela Alvarado, 17, John Virgen, 17, Elan Dowd, 17, and junior Aiden Funk, 16, reflected on what they learned, such as learning how to budget.
“The reality check was my favorite part. We were living an adult life and had to figure out all these prices and budgeting,” Blanco said. “You just have to stop yourself so that you can save your money and not spend it all on a boat or an expensive car.”
“I like how they would show you what you could afford, or what you could buy with the credit score that you had, because I didn’t really think it could impact anything,” Alvarado said. “I didn’t really think about credit scores like that.”
Not only did the students learn the ropes of day-to-day budgeting, but also how to better invest in property and bonds.
“I learned that it is better to buy a house and pay the mortgage because your house increases in value over time,” Virgen said. “It’s way better than renting because if you rent you’re actually just losing money and your money isn’t going anywhere. It’s not increasing or decreasing.”
“My favorite part was the Rule of 72. The person we spoke to was talking about compound interest,” Dowd said. “So he was showing how to put money in savings over the years, that can multiply.”
“The biggest thing that I took away from it was the difference between stocks and bonds and how bonds are safer and more reliable, but they just don’t get you as much money as stocks do,” Funk said. “They just don’t have risk involved.”
Proud teacher Thompson was happy with the takeaways and methods the students are now aware of, many of whom are current working upperclassmen.
“The students that I brought in here today truly reflect Bowman students and how incredibly smart and savvy they are. They were given lots of compliments on being conservative with their spending,” Thompson said. “A lot of kids are working, so they already know the value of a dollar to a large degree, but this was definitely eye opening for everyone.”
