WRCC Students Attend Mini-Reality Fair
Nicole Awaad’s Foundations class at the Windham Regional Career Center recently participated in a Mini-Reality Fair sponsored by BDCC’s Pipelines and Pathways Program (P3). P3 has planned and sponsored a large-scale Reality Fair for the past two Octobers for all Windham County students at Leland & Gray High School. The Fair consists of two experiences, one called Adulting-101 where students learn practical life skills like changing a tire and cooking. The other, a financial literacy experience, gives students a “paycheck” and challenges them to make their way around the Game of Life, purchasing necessities like transportation and housing, while attempting to balanc those needs with extras like entertainment, pets, and salons. A completed budget with at least one dollar left at the end of the month is considered a success.
Nicole’s students attended the fall event at L&G, and then Nicole asked P3 for a deeper dive experience tailored to her Foundations students, many of whom are new Americans and English language learners.Christy Betit, BDCC’s P3 Program Manager, who developed the event with Nicole, said “this is the magic of P3 – the partnership with creative, expert faculty. We build from our core P3 curriculum but then makes something new to meet the needs of a specific group of students.”
Approximately 30 students attended the event with volunteers from BDCC and the Career Center offering support and guidance as they navigated the exercise. Prior to the event, Nicole was able to provide a full class period dedicated to preparing students, helping them understand taxes, student loans, and the dangers of credit card debt. Students also discussed strategies for approaching the exercise with an animated discuss about what constitutes a “need” v. a “want”. “I would choose food first, before housing, because I need to eat, but I could live in a tent,” joked one student.
P3 has aspired to provide this level of training in advance of the large-scale event since its inception. But creating the level of buy-in needed from each school to not only carve out time for the actual event, but allow P3 a full class period (or two) for orientation and training, has been challenging. Student and teacher feedback from this mini-fair has been positive and will provide P3 with evidence to support our recommendation for more training in advance of the big event at each school. WRCC Math Teacher (and former Bellows Falls Union High School Principal) Chris Hosden, attended the recent event, and has agreed to work with P3 to develop short and easy-to-implement lessons that can be embedded in a regular high school math class. We plan to collaborate with Chris to create those lessons this spring that can be shared with math teachers from each supervisory union. Our goal is to have each student participating in next October’s event attend these mini-trainings during their regularly scheduled math classes next September.
About Pipelines & Pathways
BDCC’s Pipelines and Pathways Program (P3) provides career education within the five southeastern Vermont public high schools. P3 helps students develop their personalized learning plans (PLP) through learning experiences to develop knowledge about career opportunities, and achieve their goals after graduation. Students develop soft skills, financial literacy, knowledge about economic sectors and skills in-demand through hands-on activities, work-based learning, and mentorships. Pipelines & Pathways is a BDCC Workforce Center of Excellence program based on SeVEDS strategies to increase the size and quality of the region’s workforce. For more information please visit https://brattleborodevelopment.com/engaging-with-high-school-students/
P3 was launched as a five year pilot, thanks to historic investment from the Vermont Community Foundation and McClure Foundation, the Vermont Training Program, WCEDP Vermont Yankee closure funds, and municipal contributions to SeVEDS. In 2023 P3 reached a major program milestone by commitments from the private sector. M&T Bank, whose support was matched by local employers G.S. Precision and C&S Wholesale Grocers joins funding partners McClure Foundation, the George W. Mergens Foundation, the Windham Regional Career Center and the West River Education District in supporting P3 across southeastern Vermont.
