Many youth today are ending their educational journey the day they graduate from high school.  According to the Union County Kentucky workforce data profile, 30% of youth obtain some college or Associate degree and 10% acquire a Bachelor's degree or above.  One of the most common reasons for not furthering their education is the expense of college.  The school system wanted a program to teach students how much college cost and ways to pay for higher education.  

The "College Reality" teaches students ways to pay for college by using scholarships/grants, KEES money, student loans and FAFSA.  The ideal outcome of the program is to show students that it is possible to go to college no matter what your background may be.  To begin the program, each students draws a college card which consists of detailed information outlining how much their college's tuition, room and board, books and supplies, transportation and personal cost would be.  Each student is given a statement sheet which outlines their charges, credits and overall total due to their college.  They takes the financial information provided on their college card and write down those costs listed.  Now, they are ready to visit each booth to see what financial aid they may recieve such as scholarships/grants, KEES, or FAFSA.  After visiting each booth they would subtract how much financial aid they recieved on their statment and determine the amount they still owed for college.  If they still owed for college they would visit the booth to take out a student loan and write a check to pay for college.  Several college booths are available for students to visit and ask questions.  Union County Extension District provided bag with marketing items as well as snap ed recipes that would be beneficial and easy for college students.  

Many local business volunteer to work booths to make the "College Reality" a success. This program has been offered in previous years but has not been offered since 2019 due to COVID. This year we targeted 10th and 11th grade.  A total of 270 students were impacted by the program. After going through the "College Reality", 60% of the students stated they were going to try harder in school, 89% save more of their money, 55% stated get more education after high school and 52% start my college search earlier.  The biggest achievement was 65% stated after the "College Reality"  they plan to attend college to obtain an associates, bachelors or higher.