It opened Wednesday for the 2011-12 school year after a five-week pilot program last year.
“It’s a great opportunity for students to learn how to manage and save money,” said Fernanda Rivera, a senior. “I’ve learned a lot of leadership skills and how to interact with other people.”
Membership information will be available at the FHS credit union. However, the student workers aren’t able to open accounts for customers. Accounts can be opened at AurGroup’s main office or any of its five branches; visit www.aurgroup.org for more details.
Transactions at the FHS credit union are limited to $50, while members can do basic deposits and withdrawals as well as learn about products and services available at AurGroup.
“The overall goal of the student credit union is to help teach good financial habits now and give students the opportunity to practice them,” said Angela Lambert, VP of Human Resources and Corporate Development for AurGroup. “Another piece of the plan is an ATM coming this fall to FHS that will allow students another outlet to manage their finances.”
AurGroup is providing the ATM to the high school through help from a grant from the Ohio Credit Union Foundation. Any profits generated by the ATM will be returned to the school, Lambert said.
“Last spring we tested the waters of the program,” she said. “We and the students are excited to have a full academic year to see the program progress.”
Rivera said the marketing plan for last year’s five-week program “wasn’t the best. Numbers-wise, the accounts we got weren’t successful. We have a new plan.”
AurGroup has provided the FHS credit union a $1,000 marketing budget. Marketing ideas include promoting it during announcements, the homecoming game/dance, prom, T-shirts and giveaways.
“We’re trying to encourage financial literacy,” said Joni Bachelor, a teacher in the Business Academy. “It’s their business that they’re running. It’s our teaching tool — how to do business activities and having them go out and teach about financial literacy.”
Forty students (12 seniors, 28 juniors) are in the Business Academy, and they will be graded on how they run the FHS credit union.
“I do think there’ll be interest with the students,” Rivera said. “People are taking this more seriously. They see it as a business and not just a project.”
AurGroup — a 75-year-old institution that was formed by Hamilton and Fairfield school teachers — also is starting a student-run credit at Hamilton High School in October. Hamilton will also have an ATM.
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5113 or smatthews@coxohio.com.
About the Author