By Lou Gall
Youth Correspondent
This past month, Glenwood Springs High School (GSHS) held Reality Town, an event that focuses on teaching high school students how to balance life with the cost of living.
Jill Wilson, a financial literacy teacher and the director of the GSHS event, had a lot to say. “It’s a culminating activity for my students to use all of the skills I’ve taught them,” she told The Sopris Sun.
While she’s been teaching for over 20 years, Wilson has hosted Reality Town since 2021. GSHS requires students to take financial literacy and by doing so helps them build up those skills that many would otherwise not have.
Ayelen Chavez, a sophomore, also had a lot to say. “I saw what my future could be and it showed me how to manage my money well — and not just my needs, but wants as well.” This event, while informative, is also a fun and interactive way for students to understand personal finance.
This electric activity brings together 30 or more volunteers, each running different stations for students to go to. Volunteers come from all over the Roaring Fork Valley — from friends of Wilson, to accountants and even doctors. The stations range from buying housing to purchasing entertainment services, all of which give the students an idea of balancing income and expenses.
Each student is assigned a job, such as a journalist, with a stay-at-home spouse and an eight-year-old son. These “realities” affect the choices made over the course of the event. A participant may choose to buy a more expensive car as it is safer for their child, but then be forced to live in their mother’s basement because they are short on money.
One is also faced with outside factors that can affect their life, as well as those of their hypothetical family members. Reality Town demonstrates to students the financial and personal decisions they make early on will affect them well into the future.
“It gives us a look into the adult world,” said participant Mazy McEwan. While this event is the pinnacle of the course, students spend the semester developing an understanding of things, such as taxes or even investing.
While this may seem like an intuitive offering, it is not a statewide requirement. Many other states are beginning to see the importance, with 23 requiring students to take a financial literacy course to graduate.
“I think 100% of high school graduates should take a financial literacy class,” said Wilson, who is passionate about this event and the importance of financial literacy. Students throughout the years often tell her of the effect her class has had on their lives. Besides, “We will always have to understand money,” Wilson pointed out
High school students are beginning to understand the burdens and privileges of adulthood through this course. Just one semester of financial literacy can have a lifelong impact on students.
Wilson’s goal is to teach finance to every child she can, giving them the opportunity to understand it before having to deal with it for real. Advocacy groups across the state are lobbying for a financial literacy course to be a graduation requirement. While Reality Town is a two-hour period in students’ lives, the impact can change their world.