CLARKSBURG – Harrison County Schools will be hosting the Reality Check personal finance simulation, sponsored by Truist Bank, at Liberty High School with all 11th grade students on Thursday, October 10, 2024 from 8 a.m. to approximately 11 a.m.
Personal finance education has really come into focus over the last several years. The WV Legislature passed a bill that went into effect July 1, 2024, that requires students to take a full credit course in Personal Finance for high school graduation, increasing the number of credits to graduate in West Virginia from 22 to 23. The bill is written to start with incoming high school freshman during the 24-25 school year, but students can only take the course during their 11th or 12th grade years. Harrison County Schools is beginning planning with their school administrators for staffing needs, and preparing their teachers with resources to engage students to learn these important life skills.
The Reality Check finance simulation is an in-person, fun, interactive game where students are given a real-life scenario, career, family, salary, credit score and they visit stations to purchase items they need to live like home, car and gasoline, groceries, utilities, clothing, etc. Students enjoy this activity, for many it is their first experience in “adulting”. They are engaged throughout the entire session and the first-hand experience with paying bills gives students a different perspective that can only come when seeing the amount of their available income after paying bills go down till you see the amount in your own checkbook go down and down.
Harrison County Schools, The Harrison County Chamber of Commerce, and the WVU Extension Service are providing local business volunteers to act as vendors and sell to students the things that they need and want as they progress through the stations. Students will hopefully end up meeting their goal to have money left to deposit into their savings account.