Students will learn banking by running the branch.
Chicopee Comprehensive High SchoolCHICOPEE – Finding it nearly impossible to secure an internship for a high school student at a bank, teachers at Comprehensive High School decided to open their own.
The School Department is working with the Polish National Credit Union to develop a small bank branch where students would work, said Kenneth R. Widelo, director of the career technical department for the schools.
As the internship program at the two high schools expanded, Widelo said he and Kara M. Blanchard, community student work force developer, were getting requests from students interested in working in banking and finance.
“I think it is easier for us to get a kid on the space shuttle than to get a kid working in a bank,” Widelo said.
Already other high schools, including Roger L. Putnam Technical in Springfield, have opened banks and educators at Chicopee Comprehensive thought they would try it.
The project is to start this summer with two high school students working at the Polish Credit Union in a paid internship that will train them in all the banking rules and regulations, Widelo said.
The will study 18 different banking compliance regulations and the Bank Secrecy Act. Students will, in part, take online courses and at the end will take exams, said James P. Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Polish National Credit Union.
“One of the nice things is when they graduate they have options that will make them marketable,” Widelo said.
They still must work out some details such as getting permission from the state Commissioner of Banking. The branch is likely to open in January, Kelly said.
The school has a location for the bank and plans to open it for limited hours three days a week. Students from both Chicopee and Comprehensive high schools will work in the branch, Widelo said.
Operations will be limited to opening savings and checking accounts and making withdrawals and deposits. It will not have an automatic teller machine or offer loans, Kelly said.
While Polish Credit Union will likely lose some money in the project, Kelly said he believes it will gain in other ways.
He said he hopes to put together a youth advisory group and work with educators to teach financial literacy so students will know how to budget, balance a checkbook and other basic skills.
“We are in the midst of launching a new website and who better to get input from than some of the high school kids,” Kelly said.
He also plans to consult with students about their Facebook page and other ways to use social networking.
“We are very community oriented and this is the right thing to do,” Kelly said, adding a lot of the bank employees graduated from one of the Chicopee high schools.