By: Sterling Giles
Suffolk News Herald, September 23, 2016
From left, Ayla Piro, Molly Spruiell and Anatasia Grund play a human-sized version of the popular board game, Life, at the North Suffolk library on Thursday evening.
Teens at the North Suffolk Library laughed and learned about life as they traversed a human-sized version of the popular board game of Life on Thursday.
The Morgan Memorial and North Suffolk libraries hosted Life Sized Games of Life for Teens on Sept. 8 and Sept. 23, respectively.
Much like the board game, the enlarged version featured decisions about budgets, taxes and other life expenses, teaching the teens about how their choices will affect them in the process.
“They’re having fun while learning about life,” said Lori Piro, one of the mothers in attendance at the North Suffolk library.
The Youth Career Center of Hampton Roads, a subset of Opportunity Inc., an organization dedicated to administering workforce development initiatives in the Hampton Roads area, introduced the activity as a part of its career immersion projects.
The purpose of the projects is to expose students to career exploration, job preparation and financial literacy education.
“We want to immerse them in their learning,” said Andrea Harrell, senior director of Youth Initiatives and Community Affairs at Opportunity Inc. “We try to have them participate in something that’s important to them.”
The life-sized games have been “requested a lot,” Harrell said. “They are very appreciative with the work we do.”
The organization has offered the activities at more than 50 libraries, schools and other institutions in the region. In addition, the group offers a life-sized version of the board game, Clue, as another one of its career immersion projects.
“Students are learning, active and excited about it,” Harrell said.
The libraries plan to host more Life games in the coming weeks, according to Angela Sumner, marketing and community relations coordinator for the city’s library system.