ADRIAN — Before heading off on spring break, eighth graders at Springbrook Middle School in Adrian got a little taste of some of the realities that come along with adulthood.
A near three-hour Reality Fair was set up in the Adrian High School gymnasium March 29 and featured the involvement of 10 Lenawee County businesses and professions, all with a goal of teaching the students about the costs and expenses of adulthood.
Julia Ely, school counselor at Springbrook, referred to the event as a correlation between maintaining positive grades and work ethic in school to the successes that can be experienced after schooling.
“A Reality Fair gives our eighth grade students a taste of reality for what it costs to live on their own,” Ely said. “Research shows that a student’s GPA tends to correlate to education levels and income after high school.”
To determine how much money each student was able to spend, they were assigned a “salary” based upon their most recent trimester grades. Once that number was figured out, students were able to visit each of the participating businesses and booths around the gymnasium where they had to make financially sound decisions when it came to things like housing, groceries, utilities, insurance, transportation, entertainment and dining.
“Students needed to adjust their budgets and spending to make sure that they still have money in their checking account at the end of the month,” Ely said. “Students hopefully saw the correlation between working hard in school and the choices that they will be able to make later on in life.”
County National Bank, Bell Ford, Meijer, Gil Henry Realty, Lenawee Now, Gurdjian Insurance Group, Lenawee Intermediate School District, WLEN Radio, Kelly Veterinary Clinic and Adrian College had representatives at the event.
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