Poverty Simulation

On November 1st, I attended a Poverty Simulation at Mount Saint Mary College. I had no idea what to expect when I walked into Hudson Auditorium. I was given a name tag with the name Nola Netter. I was a fifteen year old, African American. In my family, I had a dad, a mom, and a grandpa. My mom was unemployed, and my grandpa was partially paralyzed. My dad had a job that did not pay much. The simulation was broken down into five weeks. Within those five weeks (2 hours) I could see so many changes in people. Around the room there were resources set up. For example, there was a school, a day care, a doctor, a pawn shop, social services, a quick cash place, a bank, religious services, and a homeless shelter. I could only go to school for four out of the five weeks because school was closed during the third week. I worked at the super center when school was out to help support my family. One of the hardest parts of the simulation was transportation. Our family was only given five transportation passes to start. After that we had to buy them. My dad needed all the transportation passes for a week of work, so mom and grandpa stayed home while I went to school. I started selling drugs at school to make a few extra dollars for my family. It was so hard for my family to pay all the bills and eat. Every time we had family time it was always a talk about money. The poverty simulation opened my eyes to what many of my fieldwork students face on a day to day basis. An interesting fact I found out was that in the Newburgh school districts they stopped asking for free breakfast forms because mostly all the students qualify for free and reduced lunch. Now, all the children in the Newburgh schools receive free breakfast. Sometimes we all take for granted what we have. When I was a baby, my mom was a single mother raising two kids and eligible for food stamps. My nana was our knight and shining armor and adopted us into her home. I will be forever thankful for my family, my education, and the life that I am living. If my fieldwork kids learn one thing from me I hope it is that they know that they can achieve anything if they put their mind to it! If they want to be a doctor, a professional athlete, a police officer, a teacher, the next president, it can be done if they put their mind and heart to it. Poverty is an obstacle that many of them face, but it is obstacle that should not stop them from living out their dreams!