Youth studies show that youth benefit from courses in personal finance. In order to offer youth a significant experience regarding finances and job interaction the Carlisle County Extension offered a very comprehensive Reality Store. The students received post event lessons on resume's and job applications, and budgeting. School personnel determined the education category for students based on test scores. This year we held Reality Store for 71 seventh graders. Ninety-one % of 7th grade students gave the event an 8 or better rating. Students mentioned these things after Reality Store: getting an education is important, work to get a good paying job, need to pay better attention in class so you can make better grades, and you need to wait till you have a good job to have kids. Some even mentioned I am not having kids they cost too much.  Participants said they would make better decisions when spending money. I noticed as students came through my booth they were very concerned about their job choice, they would buy a big expensive vehicle then in about ten minutes they were back wanting to trade it for something cheaper.  The budget items really seemed to open their eyes. Several made comments about I have to make wiser choices in school and life.  Some parents mentioned that after their kids had gone through Reality Store and that if they said we can't do that right now, their kids didn't complain as they had in the past.
Reality Store is a collaborative effort between the school system, Community Education, Family Focus, county government agencies, businesses, the extension service and parent and 27 community volunteers.