USD 257 eighth-graders and sophomores stepped into adulthood Friday during the RealityU event held in the Iola High School gym.
Sponsored by Emprise Bank, the 75-minute program transformed the gym into a real-world budgeting experience. Community volunteers staffed a dozen tables representing common monthly expenses, guiding students as they worked through the everyday financial decisions of adults.
To begin the simulation, students imagined themselves at age 26 and completed a survey about their future career, education level, marital status, and number of children. Their responses, along with their current grade point average, were entered into RealityU’s trademarked software to generate individualized life scenarios.
Each student received a profile detailing projected monthly income, credit card debt, and family status. Armed with a checkbook register, participants moved from table to table making purchasing decisions for expenses such as insurance, utilities, taxes, rent, and car payments, carefully tracking each transaction.
RealityU is designed to help students build and practice personal finance skills while also engaging community members as active partners in financial literacy education within local schools.
The program has been implemented in 100 Kansas schools and has served 14,000 students.
