March 4, 2015 at 4:10 p.m.
Mad Money event prepares high school seniors to enter the workforce
Mad Money event prepares high school seniors to enter the workforce
That's because Mad Money is in a transition year. Normally a budget simulation event for juniors used to teach financial awareness, changes had to be made this year to accommodate the ACT testing schedule.
Beginning this year, all juniors will be taking the ACT during the school day. Knowing that, Partners in Education (PIE) - the group that organizes Mad Money - decided to make Mad Money an event for seniors. Not wanting to force the students through the same simulation they experienced last year, organizers updated this year's event to focus on employability and life skills.
"There's a change with juniors now all taking the ACT in school today. We had traditionally done the Mad Money event with the junior class, where we brought them in in the morning and they were given a budget and they had to make their monthly budgeting decisions and then in the afternoon we talked about those decisions," said Lara Barbour, president of PIE.
"Because we're transitioning to make Mad Money a senior event, they obviously just did that last year, so we needed to transition this year into something different."
That transition brought about a focus on preparing to enter the workforce. This year's event included six sessions for the students - mock interviews, resume writing, marketing yourself, understanding your paycheck, the financial game of life and customer service.
"We're doing mock interviews, ... the Job Center is talking to kids about resumes, a customer service presentation, a presentation on how to present yourself - how to build your own brand, market yourself, how do you show up to an interview, those kinds of things - and then we have two financial situations," Barbour said.
"There's a game of life for the kids where they have to make decisions on financial situations and then learn how those decisions impact future decisions. ... Then we also have a session on breaking down a pay stub, so the kids know why money is taken out of their checks and what those benefits really have to do with their job and the pay that they're getting."
Organizers hope the students will apply the lessons after graduation.
"What we hope is it gets kids out of the classroom - you're not just sitting there listening to your teachers all day long with the traditional presentation and taking notes and lecture-type of experience - but instead they're really applying those skills," Barbour said.
"They're thinking about the things they need to know when they're interviewing, writing their resumes, creating and understanding their budgets and finances - those skills that we sometimes forget to teach kids now."
Students who participated in the various sessions said they feel they're more prepared for life in the real world than they were before the event.
Scott Sedlacek said he learned a lot about what life's like after high school from the game of life.
"It was a good experience. I think I did pretty well," he said.
"I learned that it's really a game of chance - you never really know what you're going to win and what you're going to lose, so you really have to be prepared all the time by saving as much as you can, when you can."
"(Life after graduation) is definitely going to be harder than I thought," he added.
"There's a lot more to think about and a lot more to do, but I think it's going to be fun."
Dustin Simon wasn't as successful at the game of life due to some bad luck picking his chance cards, which he said was a good lesson to learn.
"I learned that life can give you a lot of stuff very quickly. I managed to hit a deer, rear end a car and hit a snowbank in the same two-week period," he said.
"It was very expensive and (it all happened) before I could get to the square where you get automobile insurance, so I learned to get car insurance immediately because that was not fun."
Zaine Tischendorf said the mock interview was a valuable experience.
"(I learned) that it's really hard to talk about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses," he said.
"You kind of learn a lot about yourself when you're trying to talk about your weaknesses. You don't want to say anything bad about yourself because you don't want to give the employer the wrong impression, that you're saying something bad about yourself, but you also want to point out that you're not perfect, that everybody has flaws."
Tischendorf said he will take what he learned and work to improve before walking into a real interview.
"When I do have interviews for jobs in the future, I'll know what to expect from an employer and how to answer the questions in an honest way and in the way they want," he said.
Pete Vanney was one of the volunteers conducting the interviews. He said he was very impressed with how the students handled themselves.
"They've done great," he said.
"I asked each of them probably 20 to 25 questions - what's your greatest asset, what's your greatest weakness - and they all answered pretty good."
It's volunteers like Vanney who make Mad Money as educational as it is, Barbour said.
"Everything that we do through Partners in Education is completely volunteer ... and today we have in the range of 40 to 50 community volunteers to help with each session," she said.
"We wouldn't be able to do this without the volunteers that come to help."
And it's not just about what the volunteers teach the students. Just being there and showing the students the community cares for them has a major impact as well.
"I think even more than what we're teaching the kids about actual life skills today, I almost think the volunteers that come have a bigger impact," Barbour said.
"I think when students see that there are all these business people in the community - professionals and people who want to help them - and to be able to learn about their business and potential careers, I think that sends a really strong message to our kids about what our community thinks about them and how they feel about their education and how they want to improve all of that."
Mad Money will be a new event once again next year, though what it will entail will be quite familiar. Barbour said the plan is to combine the financial simulation of previous years with the new employability skill sessions of this year.
"Next year, the hope is to have the seniors do the Mad Money simulation in the morning and an abbreviated version of what's going on today in the afternoon, so they'll still get those employability skills in the afternoon," she said.
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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