Coppell ISD helping seniors prepare for the real world with "adulting" bootcamp
COPPELL (CBSNewsTexas.com) — The real world can hit hard when you graduate high school, so one North Texas school district is helping seniors prepare for the transition with an "adulting" bootcamp.
"Adulting Day is all about learning all of those extra skills and kind of tips you don't always get in the classroom," said Coppell ISD Superintendent Dr. Brad Hunt.
On Wednesday, the district gave all its seniors a jumpstart on all the tasks that are a normal part of growing up.
Students got to pick from a variety of sessions, from self-defense and home buying to money management and car maintenance. All the sessions were led by more than 40 business partners and community members eager to impart some wisdom.
"Some of these kids have never had to prepare a meal for themselves or come up with what they're going to eat for the week," said Alicia Braun, the district's child nutrition coordinator. "So we are going to be teaching them how to meal plan, how to go shopping for groceries."
Braun also showed them how to make easy and healthy meals without a fancy kitchen.
"They're very surprised when they learn they can microwave eggs," Braun said.
Some were just as surprised to learn all about personal finance.
"We're going to have taxes we have to pay for, we need to know how to do it," said senior Liberty McConnell. "We need to budget. We need to plan. I think it's just kind of a lot to take in, that we should apply to our future."
That future feels like it's only a few months away from beginning.
"I'm really hoping this will give me confidence to become more independent, especially now that I'm leaving for college and moving away from my parents and my family," said senior Nandini Petluri.
Whether students are headed for college, a job or the military after graduation, the district hopes these lessons in adulting make the transition a little easier.
"You always have the internet, always have YouTube, but it's sometimes nice to be able to go into the situation with a baseline level knowledge of, 'OK, I know how to do this,'" Dr. Hunt said.
The most popular and attended classes during Adulting Day were cooking and meal planning, personal taxes, investing and how to travel the world on a budget.