Poverty is an issue that is happening worldwide, but is prevalent in the Elon community. To raise awareness about what it feels like to be impoverished, Elon hosted a poverty simulation in McKinnon Hall this morning, Jan. 9. Each student that participated received a new identity, along with a family, a budget and bills to pay.
Fifteen minutes represented a week of rushing around the room trying to pay bills, make money, and survive each week. The rush of the 15 minutes to represent a week was so the participants can really feel the stress of being impoverished, and that got through to senior Brianna Cauthen.
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"I knew about poverty and I have some close family and friends that are impoverished so this was just me being able to stand in their shoes for a few hours, and see that the stress and anxiety, and all of those things are real. So I really came away really wanting to further my passions," Cauthen said.
After the simulation there was a discussion where students voiced what was hard and what worked well with their families. A majority of the students found that they could not afford to eat for a week, or they had to turn off one of their utilities in order to buy other necessary items.
Following the discussion there was a presentation that put the topic of poverty into reality. It showed numbers of poverty nationwide, in North Carolina and in Alamance County.