Tuesday, November 27, 2007
School's newest classroom is a bank
Shanna Flowers
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The hard sell was on.
The product was money -- saving and managing it.
The salesmen, Malcolm Jones and Brandon Reynolds, tag-teamed the target, Adrian Ambrose.
"We have online bill pay," Brandon told Adrian. "Cellphones or any bills you have to pay."
Malcolm picked up from there, spewing a litany of services. Savings accounts. Checking accounts. CDs.
"CDs? For what?" a puzzled Adrian asked. In his world, CDs are music compact discs, and they're relics of a bygone era -- the '80s and '90s.
"Certificates of deposit," Malcolm gently clarified.
Adrian, a senior at William Fleming High School, was getting a lesson in personal finance. But he wasn't in a classroom. He had stopped into the student branch of Member One Credit Union, which opened at Fleming earlier this month.
Fleming is only the second Southwest Virginia high school to have a Member One branch on campus. The credit union opened a successful student branch five years ago at Franklin County High School.
Member One officials said they were not aware of any other high schools in the area that have full-service financial institutions. Christiansburg High School is scheduled to open a Member One student branch in January.
The Fleming office is a full-service credit union operated by students.
It's not open to the public, but staff and students can use it to open accounts, make deposits and withdrawals, take out loans or perform any other transaction available at Member One's 12 branches.
"The whole idea is to implement financial literacy," said Hope Collins, a Member One employee at the Brookside branch on Williamson Road. She also serves as the student branch's assistant manager.
Who can't get behind the idea of financial literacy? Whether it's dropping coins in a piggy bank or opening a first savings account with money earned cutting lawns, money management is priceless for young people. The financial habits they learn now will stay with them as they grow older.
"Your credit pretty much determines what happens in your life," noted Christina Altice, a junior who works at the credit union.
Though school programs such as Fleming's credit union help teach money management, most young people learn what they know about money from their parents, according to financial experts.
Yet according to a nationwide survey conducted this spring for brokerage firm A.G. Edwards, about one-third of parents haven't discussed saving or investing with their children.
The reasons parents cited for skipping the money talk were the belief that children are too young to worry about it; that it never occurred to them; that they didn't feel they knew enough about the subject themselves.
Experts say parents don't have to be masters of the ins and outs of the Federal Reserve. Kids just want to know what they need to do to buy a new pair of sneaks for school.
Not having the money talk can have serious consequences. In 2006, 180,000 people between 18 and 25 declared bankruptcy.
The students working at the Fleming credit union said the experience has certainly made them more financially aware.
Last spring, Member One approached Fleming officials about opening a branch at the school. After doing research and visiting the Franklin County student branch, school officials presented the idea to former Assistant Superintendent Richard Layman, who approved it.
School officials tapped students who might be interested. The Member One human resources officer and a branch manager interviewed the students.
The credit union hired four youths and put them through 11 days of intensive training. Afterward, the students worked the rest of the summer at Member One branches. Some continue to work at the Brookside branch on Williamson Road on weekends.
The students, who earn $8.90 an hour, continue to talk to classmates about the benefits of the in-school credit union, which is open after school and plans to expand its hours next semester. Because the credit union is new, students have been a little slow to come around.
But the branch employees expect that will change, particularly after they start visiting classrooms next semester to talk to students about the importance of money management.
Not only is credit union worker Christina Altice saving, but she also believes she may have found a promising career.
The 16-year-old knows how to do most everything -- transfers, deposits, withdrawals, even spotting counterfeit cash. She has also learned a more efficient way to count cash, though she admits she's still a little fuzzy on IRA fee schedules.
Not to worry; she's still light years ahead of many of her classmates -- and a whole lot of adults.
