>> EDUCATION
On Dec. 12, the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce hosted the Reality Check program for about 100 Baldwin and Putnam counties students at Georgia College Early College.
Reality Check is a hands-on program that the chamber has hosted for high school students for over seven years. It provides students the opportunity to experience life as a 26-year-old by taking them through scenarios regarding personal finances, education, careers and family, while allowing the students to work through problem solving and real-world situations to increase their financial literacy.
“The program helps the conversation with financial literacy and helps students realize the cost of different lifestyles and what it means to budget,” said Kara Lassiter, president and CEO of the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce.
In a session, 50 to 70 students participate and are given a ledger. On that sheet, it tells them their annual income, their monthly income and their life. No one student will have the same criteria, so each experience is different.
“After they receive the ledger, they go to booths inside the room and try to find out how they can get housing, how much they can spend for fun, and so on. They have to learn how to budget and it can get very competitive between the students,” said Lassiter. “They are always so excited when we do these sessions.”
According to Lassiter, major takeaways for the students include: learning what the cost of necessities are, learning how to budget properly based on different scenarios, teaching them what their incomes could be based on different levels of education and careers, and teaching them about the range of jobs open to them.
“Typically we do this program for the sophomores at each school; however, like the session at Early College we had sophomores and freshmen. Sometimes seniors also join the sessions,” said Lassiter.
The program is led through the help of volunteers. Volunteers include community leaders and local businesses. Their assistance allows students to build connections and also connects the community to the schools.
“Our volunteers assist with the program because they think it’s something key for the students to learn,” said Lassiter. “Most of our volunteers have been helping for years and they just love it.”
The Milledgeville-Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce hosted Reality Check sessions for Georgia Military Prep School and John Milledge Academy in October. The next sessions will be at Baldwin High School in January or February.