Alcorn Career & Technology Center

On February 14th Ms. Mary Linda Moore, the Family Resource Management Area Extension Agent for the MSU Extension Service brought the "Welcome to the Real World" program to the Career & Technical Center.  The program sets up mock scenarios that gives participating students an occupation, annual/monthly salary, and family situation.  The students then goes through 10 stations where they make selections and pay monthly payments.  Included in the stations are: housing, transportation, groceries, childcare, clothing, taxes, unexpected expenses, entertainment, personal hygiene and communication.  The goal for students is to see how our choices must fit into our budgets in order to have enough money to successfully complete a month.  If students find that they cannot balance their monthly budget, then they must visit Ms. Moore's booth to obtain a second job.  The overall objectives of the school wide project are to help students start thinking about jobs as related to salaries and about how important it is to make financial choices that fall within the realm of their earnings.