Feb. 7, 2011

Briar Cliff Students Participate in Poverty Simulation

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Choosing between buying groceries or paying bills is one of the many difficult hypothetical situations Briar Cliff University students faced in the Poverty Simulation held recently on the Briar Cliff campus.

In the learning exercise, community volunteers and BCU faculty were landlords, food pantry clerks, police officers, employment officers, teachers, utility workers, welfare staffers, and money lenders, while students acted as poverty-stricken family members.

Role playing as single parents, family members and older adults, BCU students were confronted with the problem of having only enough money to pay for their rent and a one-way ticket on public transportation to work. 

 “The Poverty Simulation forced students into making difficult decisions with very little resources,” said Victoria Britson, Ph.D., ARNP-BC, CNE, professor of nursing, MSN Program director. “It gave students a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes. Although the exercise was only practice for BCU students, what they experienced is a reality many Americans face daily,” Dr. Britson explained.

The annual Poverty Simulation was co-sponsored by BCU’s nursing and social work departments in conjunction with the Woodbury County Extension Service.

“Social work students took what they learned in the simulation to their Interpersonal Helping Skills class,” said Heather Craig-Oldsen, MSW, CSW, associate professor, program director, chairperson of social work and principle investigator for Siouxland Indian Child Welfare Traineeship Project. “They learned how people living in poverty might be reluctant or resistant to ask for assistance from a formal service.”

 Briar Cliff University is a Catholic institution with an enrollment of more than 1,150 students from 29 states and 11 other countries. Students are educated in the Franciscan tradition of excellence in the liberal arts and career preparation in an environment of care, compassion and service. For more information, please visit briarcliff.edu.

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