For students at Bath High School, accessing information on healthy financial habits will be easier than ever now that Superior Credit Union has opened a branch in their school employing some of their peers.
“I will be opening accounts for students within this and helping them with the ATM,” said junior Olivia Meenach, 17. “Any questions they have, I’m here. I heard about the opportunity and I was really, really intrigued with it because it’s a great opportunity for not only me but my friends around me, and everyone needs a bank account at some point in their life so why not start now?"
To work in the Wildcats branch, students must take a personal finance or economics class at school and go through some training. Then, they can explore if a career in banking could be right for them.
“I’ve always been interested in pursuing a career in finance and banking, and maybe even real estate,” said junior Makyah Upshaw, 17. “Any of this is exposure and I can learn from it and take a lot from it, and maybe get an opportunity to be employed with Superior."
This is the second branch superior has installed in an Ohio school, an arrangement the credit union says is mutually beneficial for them and the students.
“Research indicates that Millennials just don’t come into financial institution branches anymore so that presents two problems," said Kurt Neeper, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Superior Credit Union."Both a business problem, not getting new people in, but then also the problem of when people don’t come in we don’t have the opportunity to instill in them good financial habits. So this is an opportunity for us to get out of the bank and go into where young people are hopefully pick up some of that financial counseling."
Right now eleven Wildcats are employed at the branch. Neeper says they plan on ideally having ten to twelve students working there as time goes on.
