Not every Gateway CEO day is about entrepreneurship. Some days are about life.
On Tuesday, we welcomed Abby Walther and the team from 1st MidAmerica Credit Union for one of our favorite self-development experiences: Mad City!
Mad City is a hands-on, real-life simulation that asks our students to imagine what their lives might look like 10 years from now.
They are given a career, a monthly income, a credit score and a potential student loan payment—and then they’re off!
Now they have to figure out the rest.
🏠 Housing
🚗 Transportation
🛡️ Insurance
🥦 Groceries
👶 Childcare
🎬 Entertainment
💰 Savings
And because life rarely goes exactly according to plan, every student gets a “road bump.” Maybe it's a $50 unexpected expense. Maybe it's $1,800. Either way, they still have to figure out how to make the rest of the month work.
What makes this simulation so powerful is that students aren't sitting in a classroom hearing a lecture about budgeting. They are walking through the decisions themselves. They visit each station, make choices, do the math, adjust their plans and experience the emotions that come with trying to make it all work.
And there are some pretty great conversations along the way.
Can I actually afford a house?
Maybe my income is good, but my credit score needs some work.
Wait...how much does childcare cost?! 😳
Who is going to babysit these future grandbabies?! 😂
And what am I going to do about this unexpected $1,800 expense?
The goal isn't for every student to make the “right” decision. It's to help them understand that the decisions they make today can have a very real impact on the life they are building 10 years from now.
While it's a simulation, the perspective is real.
It's easy to think about the next Starbucks run or what you want to buy this weekend when you're in high school. Gateway CEO wants our students to also start thinking about the bigger picture—career, credit, relationships, housing, family, savings, responsibility and the kind of life they want to create.
Thank you, Abby and the entire First MidAmerica Credit Union team, for bringing this important—and incredibly hands-on—conversation to Gateway CEO! We dove in and then we had to wrap up quickly! While we missed the group picture, the lasting impact is there. Thank you for doing the work that you do!
We love giving our students opportunities to learn beyond the classroom and beyond the business plan.
#GatewayCEO #FirstMidAmericaCreditUnion #MadCity #FinancialLiteracy #SelfDevelopment #LifeSkills #FutureLeaders
