Cross-curricular collaboration explores poverty

Can you survive a month in poverty? That was the key question at a recent Community Action Poverty Simulation explored by Penn College students in various majors in the School of Nursing & Health Sciences and two majors in the School of Business, Arts & Sciences: emergency management & homeland security and human services & restorative justice.

Poverty simulations have been held at Penn College since Spring 2019, but the Spring 2025 event was the first to cast a wider net of cross-curricular collaboration.

The Nursing & Health Sciences Diversity Taskforce, in collaboration with faculty from emergency management & homeland security and human services & restorative justice, invited students to “walk a mile in the shoes of those facing poverty” and gain understanding of “situations that families living in poverty experience every day – the decisions they have to make, and the fears and frustrations they feel.”

The simulation placed participants in roles within low-income families living on limited budgets. The experience was divided into four 15-minute sessions, each representing one week in the lives of the individuals.

For Penn College students preparing to enter a range of career fields, the experiential learning event is an essential element for gaining the awareness, skills and compassion needed in their future jobs.