For many college students, they don’t know what it is like to live in poverty so Troy University‘s Office of Civic Engagement gave students a chance to learn what it is like to have to struggle with poverty.

Civic Engagement held a poverty simulation for students to realistically experience the lives of people with financial deficiencies.

The main focus was to allow for students of all backgrounds to get a realistic idea of what really goes on in the life of struggling people.

“I think that for each of us this may be an experience that closely affects some of us,” says Coordinator of Civic Engagement Lauren Cochran. “Some of us have lived this experience. Some of us this is kind of a foreign experience. So it is very important for students, no matter what career they’re going into, to be informed about poverty, the effects on individuals and the effects on our community.”

There were several stations set up in order to give the impression of things people have to go through in their everyday lives.

There was a bank, a health care center, a social services office and even a place of employment and a school. The stations were to represent the obstacles that a person must go through in order to make it to the next day.

“I hope that students take away from this event a different level of understanding and empathy,” says Cochran. “A lot of times individuals with low incomes are stereotyped in particular ways and so I hope this is insightful for students and educates them on the challenges and the barriers, the gaps in opportunity that exist for people in poverty and people of low income.”

For the full story watch Mackenzie’s report.