Fairmont Senior High students get crash course on how to be an adult
May 17—FAIRMONT — A number of Fairmont Senior High students just finished a crash course in how to be an adult.
The Budget Challenge is a 14-week online course in which students obtain a credit card, pay bills, manage their paycheck and live on a budget as a new college graduate. The goal is to teach students how to manage money, Personal Finance Teacher Robin Salai said.
On Monday, students were awarded for completing the challenge with prizes based on the number of trophies they received during the course.
The maximum number of trophies students could be awarded was six and nine students were awarded with a 1878 to 1904 Morgan Silver Dollar valued at $45. One student, senior Logan Decker, answered all of the final questions of the challenge correctly, which means he has an adult level of finance knowledge, so he was given an additional silver dollar.
Students with five and six trophies were given a copy of "Total Money Makeover," by Dave Ramsey, a book about personal finance. Students with four trophies were given a budget book with envelopes to label and store money in and other prizes included a planner, a smaller budget book and keychains decorated with motivational sayings.
Students said they would recommend taking the class to anyone.
"I think if it wasn't for this class I would have zero clue on what to do after high school, so without taking this class, you would be really lost... The thing it's helped me most with is learning how to start saving for retirement because that was the biggest thing that I was kind of clueless about," Decker said.
"Having Mrs. Salai as a teacher is the best part of the program," Sophomore Haden Clyde said.
Both Clyde and Decker said the class was definitely challenging. Some of the worst parts included, "the late fee waiver process" and "making sure you turn your bills in on time and you pay the right amount."
Salai said her favorite part about the whole process is having the awards ceremony at the end of the course.
"I try to encourage as many kids as possible to take the challenge, just because it, to me, is necessary," Salai said.
Salai has been teaching at Fairmont Senior for three years, since then, her personal finance class has doubled and many of the business programs offered have grown, as well.
This year, 17 students are graduating with the business completer award. Last year, there were seven and her first year, she had none. Business completers are also walking the graduation ceremony at the Marion County Vocational Tech Center for the first time this year, which Salai is looking forward to.
The course cannot be completed twice, so what you score the first time, is your score. The cost to complete is $25, but Marion County Vocational Tech provided grant funding that covered all of the costs of the Budget Challenge.
"Seeing the end results and how much the students learn from it is the best part. It's watching the numbers grow from one '6 trophy' to nine '6 trophies.' I love my job and I love my kids," Salai said.
Reach me at sshriver@timeswv.com or 304-367-2549.
