Financial Reality Fair for Seniors at Hamburg Area High School

Hamburg Area High School hosted a Financial Reality Fair for its seniors on April 2. Made possible by Mr. Gaul, the new math teacher at Hamburg, the fair went smoothly with many students saying they came away with a new understanding. The students were first shown a video from another Financial Reality Fair, then sent into the cafe where the fair was being held. Students got to choose which path they would like to take eductionally, choosing among a high school diploma, two year technical school, Bachelor’s Degree, or a Master’s Degree. Then, from there students would travel around building up their expenses from the many tables around the cafe. The tables had representative’s to help each student decide on what option or payment they would want to go with.

One of the first tables that students would stop at was the housing table, where students would decide their living situations after graduating. Many of the other tables held the same idea, to help students find out where and what they are going to do after college. Once all the tables had been visited, students took a chance at the wheel of reality. With a spin, the wheel would decide if students would be able to get some extra cash or if they would have to pay for an unexpected broken car, cracked phone, etc. After calculating all the expenses together and subtracting from their monthly income, the hope would be that the total money left over is in the positives. If not, the students would have to visit the part-time job table, where they talked with the representative on getting a second job. The final step was to talk to the Financial Counselor and see how they did.

Mr. Gaul’s thoughts on the fair was that it was an amazing opportunity for the seniors. Stating that there was a lot of positive feedback from the students, many saying they had an eye-opening experience. All around it was a fun and educational time for Hamburg’s seniors.

Many students expressed that they learned much from the fair and that it helped them understand more of what their future will be like. Morgan Huff, a senior at Hamburg said that the fair was very fun and that she learned more than she had expected to. Explaining further that it was very eye-opening and that she will definitely use all that she learned as a reference for future plan making.

Cheyenne Hollenbach, also a senior at Hamburg, stated that the fair gave her a real life perspective and that it was very realistic. Further explaining that she enjoyed it very much, the fair was a chance to live through the scenario of after high school and college rather than having to try to imagine it.