What is the Youth Banking Program?
Collectively, TVFCU and the Batavia City School District have joined together. Together, our goal is to enlighten elementary students at an early age of the great importance, and the rewarding benefits of saving and managing one’s money.
The BHS Branch is a student run project that began in 1998 through the School-to-Work program, with the help of Mrs. Sharon Messina, the Batavia City Schools, School-To-Work Coordinator. Batavia High School students from Mrs. Theresa Lippold’s Entrepreneurship class that choose to work at the branch are interviewed by credit union employees and are graded in areas such as first impressions, preparation, attitude, personal appearance and responses. By working at the branch, the students gain experience with various financial activities, including cash handling and the importance of confidentiality.
The BHS branch is open to both students and faculty on Mondays and Fridays from 7:45am to 8:15am in the bookstore. The BHS branch offers the same services that TVFCU offers to its members, such as opening new accounts, the opportunity to make deposits, withdrawals, purchase stamps, the capability to make TVFCU MasterCard and loan payments, as well as check cashing privileges to all our members.
In February 2003, TVFCU and John Kennedy Elementary School joined together to create our Junior Banking Program for students. The Junior Banking Program is offered to the entire student body of JK and its faculty. Initially, students are given the opportunity to open a primary savings account through a branch of TVFCU located right in the JK cafeteria. This branch is operated by an assigned set of student representatives and supervised by Mrs. Susan Woodruff. Each student representative performs a specific credit union role such as teller, auditor, treasurer or co-president. The Junior Banking Program is easy for all students from Kindergarten through Grade 5 to use. The Junior Banking Program has been a huge success. Junior Banking is on Friday mornings before school beginning at 8:10am. Come visit our branch located in the cafeteria and see our new teller window to better serve of JK members.
In February 2005, TVFCU began its Middle Branch at the Batavia Middle School. This branch is available for the BMS students and faculty. The branch is located in the 6th White wing of BMS in Room 201 and is open from 2:45pm to 3:15pm. The Middle branch is modeled after our existing BHS branch and offers the same services to our members. Since the branch began, the enthusiasm from the students has been superb. We anticipate this year’s success of the Middle Branch to continue.
TVFCU’s latest additions to our youth banking programs in the Batavia City School District are our Junior Banking branches at Robert Morris and Jackson Elementary School. Both branches began in the fall of 2006. We have had a huge response from the schools. Junior Banking begins at 8am on Thursdays at Robert Morris. Mrs. Karen Shuskey supervises our Robert Morris students. Junior Banking also begins at 8am at Jackson in the Giverny Hallway. Mrs. Debbie Loftus supervises our Jackson students. Look for our student teller window named the “Jackson Junction”. We have special Junior Banking envelopes readily available at all of our elementary Junior Banking branches. All students at these schools are welcome to visit our youth branches!
TVFCU is now in all five schools in the Batavia City School District. TVFCU’s youth banking programs provide an excellent opportunity to instill financial values in all age levels of students. Start them on their way! Please encourage your child to participate and open a savings account today. If any student, parent or guardian should have any questions or would like any further information about our youth banking programs, kindly contact our office at (585) 343-5627. You may also contact the School-To-Work office at (585) 343-2480 ext 3008 or access the District website at www.bataviacsd.org. Once there, click on BMS and Mrs. Messina’s website where you can e-mail Mrs. Messina from the website link, or at smessina@bataviacsd.org.
TVFCU Youth Banking Coordinator
Melissa E. Blum
