Upon arriving at the Campus Involvement Center’s poverty simulation, students received a packet — inside the pouch was a new identification, residence, job, and a whole new life of poverty.
“The poverty simulation is facilitated through the Campus Involvement Center’s community service effort,” said AmeriCorps VISTA Pamela Pate. “This will be the third poverty simulation that I have planned. We had one last spring, last fall and now this one. They have all been well received and impactful.”
The center partnered with the OU’s Department of Social Work to bring the event to life. Students studying social work pretended to run various social service agencies.
“I think it’s a great opportunity because many of the students are volunteering in many of the roles they’ll be working in someday,” said Solveig Spjeldnes, assistant professor in the Department of Social Work. The students who participated included Hocking College students and OU social work majors.
Each student began the simulation in family units. Some were assigned the role of children, some adults, and some were given dolls to act as babies.
The simulated world they entered consisted of establishments such as a pawnshop, a school, a bank, a jail and other community staples. Some had jobs; others did not. Some committed crime to pay their bills, such as breaking into other “houses” and stealing money.
“Their job is to be as realistic as possible,” said co-facilitator Rachel Diskin, who is an AmeriCorps VISTA leader at the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. “They are participating in a simulation of what real people in poverty go through every day. The stresses and lack of time are pretty true to life.”
Many of students in attendance felt passionately about the event and about raising awareness.
“A lot of people find themselves trapped in the “Athens” bubble, and they don’t see the realities of poverty, living on a college campus,” said Gaby Swisher, a senior studying social work. “It’s easy to distance yourself from the impoverished. The simulation provides a newer and deeper sense of understanding.”
For many of the students who participated, they learned about the realities of the careers they are pursuing.
“Education can’t all be just lecture and testing,” Pate said. “This poverty simulation will make you think about your attitudes regarding people living in poverty and solutions to these issues.”
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