AAUW-Prescott’s Community Action experiential event

This event, “The Reality Store®”, is targeted at girls and boys, 7th grade and up through high school. Most recently, we have been working with students in the Freshmen Academy at Prescott High School.

At The Reality Store®, students select a career and learn the monthly salary of that job. Then they enter “The Reality Store” where they will spend their salary by making housing, clothing, transportation, entertainment and many other choices that they envision as part of their adult lifestyle. This event helps students learn the real cost of living and whether their occupation will provide the type of lifestyle they expect and want. If not, what could they do differently?

Besides learning the costs of maintaining their expected lifestyle, they also attend workshops on Job Interviewing, financing college, and what’s it like to be a college student. They are encouraged to develop themselves and their personal skills in order to be more valuable in the job market.

Participants learn how their type of job affects how much money they’ll make and the amount of money they make determines their lifestyle. They often express surprise at how much it costs to live relative to the wages that they could earn as a 25-year-old in Yavapai County and they are shocked at the amount of taxes that would be taken out of their paychecks!

Want to see some videos of other groups providing Reality Store experiences? See videos below.

As a result of this valuable program, students respond that they are more likely to try harder in school, get more education after high school, delay having children, make wise financial decisions , and save more money.