YSU students experience everyday life in poverty

YOUNGSTOWN

Students scrambled to make ends meet with limited resources during a two-hour poverty simulation at Youngstown State University.

In between whistle blows, students raced from table to table to get fictitious groceries, vouchers, jobs, transportation passes and more Friday afternoon.

Each whistle blow represented the end of a week and beginning of another for the virtual four-week period students had to live in poverty. Challenges included losing jobs, getting eviction notices and dealing with family troubles.

Myisha Patrick, exercise science sophomore student and president of Bridges Out of Poverty Student Union, said as someone who came from a low-income family, she enjoys being able to help others understand what living in poverty is really like.

“I think the exercise changes lives and changes people’s views on poverty,” she said.

Participants were given fake names, ages and roles to carry out throughout the simulation.

Graduate student Julie Thompson went to jail twice during the simulation for neglect when she left her fictitious grandchildren to buy food in the care of her disabled husband who did not feed them.

“It’s been a bad day for me,” she said.

Thompson said as someone who also once lived in poverty, she found the exercise to be realistic when it comes to paying bills and living paycheck to paycheck.

“You really see how things can go from bad to worse,” she said. “It snowballs.”

Read more about the program, read Saturday's Vindicator or Vindy.com.