CLARKSBURG – Harrison County Schools will be hosting the Reality Check personal finance simulation, sponsored by Truist Bank, at Lincoln High School with over 170 11th grade students on Thursday, September 18 from 8 a.m. to approximately 12:00 noon.
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 the personal finance course requirement with last year’s incoming high school freshman during the 24-25 school year. Harrison County Schools started last year 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 your available income afterward go down and down in your own checkbook.
Truist, the Harrison County Chamber of Commerce, and the WV 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.
If you have any questions about the program, please contact Dr. Geraldine Beckett, CTE Liaison Specialist, Harrison County Schools, at 304-326-7387, or at geraldine.beckett@k12.wv.us