Students gather around Shelby County Commerce Director Kirk Mancer to learn more about saving money for their future expenses.

Photo by: Faith Callens

Story by: Faith Callens 

On Friday, Helena High School’s faculty and staff partnered with The Shelby County Chamber of Commerce to bring their seventh annual “Keeping it Real” program to their media center.

The program acted as an educational booster for freshman students who were interested in learning exactly what it could cost to live in the adult world.

The program was held for two days. 

On the first day, Paribear Zegari , a member from the chamber of commerce came out and spoke to the students to make them aware of their big “high school” life transformation the next day.

“Yesterday I came in and spoke to the students in their classrooms and went over a lot of information about what we were going to have for today , gave them their new life , their budget sheet and then today, we let them loose to the 12 stations where they are able to get transportation, buy a car, a home and think about their new life scenarios”, said Pari Barzegari , manager of community and career development.

350 freshman students of the high school received a chance to attend the event.
 Each freshman class received an hour to go around to each station and pick different scenarios to fit their life.

Businesses such as America’s First Credit Union , AT&T and Thompson Cat was used as “real world” examples to give students the realistic feel of becoming a responsible adult.

According to Shelby County’s commerce director, Kirk Mancer, the “Keeping it Real” program is also designed to make students realize that a good education is the key make their future significantly better.

 Several students talked among themselves about their lifestyle choices they made throughout the day.

“I’ve had a pretty good time, it’s better than doing anything else in class, and that’s just one thing. I had a good time being with my friends and being able to do all this. Some of the skills that I learned today was how to save my money, how to get a second job and how buy to a house. It really taught me how to save”, said Ryan Rosner, a current student of Helena High.

Helena’s Assistant Principal Jennifer Lowe said the “Keeping it Real” program was a great opportunity for their freshman students to get several financial literacy skills to better their future.

Lowe hopes that students can take home the skills that they learned and could possibly put them to use.