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Reflect on your experience while living on the edge of poverty during the simulation. Place your
reflections on the following items in the Poverty Simulation assignment box.

Context Items

1. Describe your Poverty Simulation Identity and your “family”

My family was composed of a mother who did not work, a father who did work, a grandfather
on disability, and myself- a 12 year old girl. My grandfather had a stroke, and lived with us. My
grandfather had paid off his car, but my parents owned a car that still had payments. My family
was on EBT, with a low amount of money for food a month. I worked part-time while school was
not in session. We possessed a few valuables, but started off with no cash money.

2. Describe the Simulation. Did you meet all the month

requirements? Bills? Food? Responsibilities? Describe outcomes for your family.

We had food every week, but our bills did not get paid every month. We missed a few house
payments, and were about to be evicted, when we were able to pay the bill. My grandfather did
not make it to his appointment in the first week for his doctor’s visit. I made it to school every
day, but was arrested in the first week for having a weapon. We took in a baby during week 3
and were able to make 20 dollars for taking the baby in. At the end of the four weeks, we had
paid our bills and had a few dollars left over, while still living in our house.

Reflection Items

Please reflect on the following questions. Your answers should demonstrate evidence of your ability to
reflect on the simulation and learn from the experience.

1. What feelings did you experience during your month in poverty?

How did you feel about yourself? About your family? Surprises? Unresolved questions or
concerns? What caught your attention? Please explain.

I felt very anxious during the month, since I was just sitting in school wondering if the bills were
getting paid and if there would be food to eat. I felt helpless, since I was told to go to school,
while my parents went out to work- or find work- and find ways to pay the bills. My family tried
very hard to pay the bills and get food for us, but we seemed to always be waiting on dad to give
us his paycheck in order to obtain what we needed. During week one, I was caught with a
weapon at school, and was put in jail. I felt very ashamed, and concerned for how much it would
cost to bail me out. It ended up costing 40 dollars, which my parents could barely spare.

2. What was the biggest challenge you faced as an individual and/or family during the simulation?

My biggest challenge was to try and act like a teenager again, and not to get involved in the bills
process, since most children would not have that much knowledge on how to pay the bills. As a
family, the biggest challenge was paying the house mortgage, since we were unable to pay it for
about two weeks.

3. What have you learned about obstacles and barriers faced by low-income families?
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I have learned that even with EBT, there are many other needs for low-income families. Sure,
parents/guardians may be able to feed themselves and their children, but there are still other
bills to pay, like utilities and mortgages.
4. What have you learned about the relationship between poverty, wellness, education, and
community?

I found that wellness is often disregarded, since there are more pressing things to pay for, like
car payments, other bills, and food. Education can be affected if the family absolutely needs
their child to work to be able to survive. The community helped its own in some situations, and
that many of the participants did not know of the resources available in the community. The
help that those resources could have brought is so immense, but the resources are being
overlooked.
5. Before you participated in the Poverty Simulation, what did you think caused poverty?

I believed, and still do believe that poverty is caused by the high inflation rates of goods, and
low incomes. The income rate did not steadily increase with the rising prices of goods and
materials, leading to people who could not afford to live. The cost of going to college or a trade
school can also limit the opportunity for people to be considered for higher paying jobs. Also,
the expenses that pop up, like a long illness or tickets can affect people who may or may not
have been doing well. The surprise expenses can add up and send someone into poverty.

6. After experiencing the Poverty Simulation, have your attitudes about poverty changed? Please
explain.

I feel that I have more of an understanding of what children feel like in these situations. I believe
they feel stress and anxiety wondering when their next meal will be or if they will have a place
to sleep that night. I have more of an understanding of the emotions that go along with living in
poverty, and may be able to react positively when presented with a student in a situation of
poverty.
7. How might this experience influence your future professional career?

I want to work in a small school in a rural area, so I will have students who are living in tough
financial situations. I will immerse myself in any program that creates backpacks of food for the
students in very low-income families, so that is one less thing the parents and students have to
worry about. I was involved in creating backpacks of food for students with my mother, and this
is when I became aware of students not having enough food at home. I will always try to remain
open-minded whenever coming into contact with those in tough life situations.

8. Describe situations during the simulation that contributed to your learning.

I found it helpful to be put into the simulation as a teenager, since I myself have not lived
through poverty. I was sitting in school, hoping that we would get everything done that needed
to be done. If I had had that stress as a teenager, I would have been so overwhelmed by
everything. I found the pricings of the bills to be accurate, helping to make the simulation
realistic. In school, having the worksheet with statistics about poverty, and having them graded
really helped me grasp how difficult it is to live off of minimum wages.

9. Describe situations during the simulation that did not contributed to your learning.
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The worksheet in school asking our thoughts about poverty seems biased, since we all know
what the answers should be. It may still be helpful to see why students feel that poverty
happens, but the other questions on the worksheet seem unnecessary.

10. Would you recommend the Poverty Simulation for the fall semester course? Consider the pros and
cons of time, cost, and effort. Write a rationale to support your recommendation.

I feel it is a great opportunity for students to be immersed in the poverty simulation to try to
understand what it may be like for our students. I feel the pros listed in number eight outweigh
the cons of number nine. It was very beneficial to be put through a simulation where my family
struggled at every move to help me understand what poverty is like. I do not feel the simulation
costs too much money, since everyone volunteered. The only cost I see is buying cookies for the
participants. There is quite a bit of effort for the people running the simulation, but I feel it is a
worthwhile experience.
11. Do you have any other suggestions to improve the Poverty Simulation experience?

My only suggestion would be to increase the weeks to 20 minutes, to allow for more time in
each experience. Since there are so many of us, it was impossible for people who had money in
their hands to buy food, and there was not enough time to buy food. I am just now realizing that
the “stores closing” is the week ending, meaning that the family did not have the money to buy
food that week. The whole experience felt full and fulfilling.