Alexus Palacios, a senior at Winnetonka High School in the North Kansas City School District, had her mind set on becoming an interior designer and a quinceañera stylist when she graduates later this spring.
“Now, my plans have changed,” Palacios said. “I now want to be a bank teller at an actual bank.”
That’s because this school year, a CSD Credit Union branch officially opened inside the high school, making it the second student-run credit union in Missouri. Winnetonka students and staff can make deposits, open accounts and even apply for loans without leaving campus.
Working at the school’s credit union wasn’t as simple as enrolling in a class. Students who were interested in the job had to fill out applications and undergo extensive training. After getting the job, they’re managed by a credit union supervisor.
Adam Magnuson, a senior, was excited to join because his mom also works in the credit union industry.
“We did all the training videos like if you want to be working at Credit Union in the real world outside of the high school, it's the exact same type of videos, same type of security questions, same everything,” Magnuson said.
Real accounts, real debit cards and real cash
Edward Watts, the credit union’s CEO, said the student workers are fully bonded and have undergone regulatory compliance training on the Bank Secrecy Act, Office of Foreign Asset Control and Currency Transaction Reports.
“We are dealing with real accounts. We're dealing with real debit cards. We're dealing with real cash,” Watts said. “So when we mean it's real hands-on learning, it is just that these students are doing exactly what our full-time staff do at our other branches.”
Watts said the idea for putting a credit union location inside a local high school stemmed from wanting to provide more “real world learning” and financial literacy to young people in their community.
Many teens haven’t heard of a credit union, Watts said, and are much more used to fintech, or financial technology, like Cash App or Venmo. As students enter adulthood, he wants the high school’s credit union to help them learn the financial tools they need.
“Our hope is that we can touch as many students, the ones that work in our branch, and then the peers that walk into this door and hopefully ask questions, open an account from people that they see in the hallway and other classes,” Watts said.
Watts said the high school’s credit union is a full-service location, so students and staff can open savings accounts and checking accounts and make investments. The credit union also offers a youth-specific debit card, with spending limits.
Winnetonka students who are at least 18, or who have parent or guardian permission, can also sign up for a loan to use on purchases like their first car.
David Milosevic, a senior, said his focus is helping other students better understand finances.
“Anytime a student has any question regarding money or managing financials, we always want to be welcoming with open arms,” Milosevic said. “(If) the student wants to come and be like, ‘Hey, what's a checking account? How do I open one?’ we just want to always make sure that we have the answers to provide them with.”
Students are creating a seminar about how to invest their money into retirement accounts and the stock market, based on what they’ve been hearing from their peers.
Watts said teens are seeing TikTok influencers who — at least online — seem affluent. His team tries to take trends that young people are interested in and teach them what it will actually look like in real life.
“TikTok and other screen-forward apps don't paint an accurate picture of the financial challenges that are actually out there for our youth,” Watts said.
Students said working in the credit union is teaching them about some of these issues firsthand. Magnuson has taken a personal finance class at school before, but said working in the credit union “is way better.”
He said students would spend a day or two in class on a topic like loans or investing. At the credit union, those issues come up more often.
“It's a much more unique experience, especially when you interact with customers or something, because they want to know as well,” Magnuson said. “When in personal finance class, it's like a one-done deal. You kind of learn it and never go back to it.”
Melody Kroner, vice president of branches at CSD Credit Union, works at the student-run credit union during school hours before heading to another branch to finish the day.
She said students are learning the importance of understanding finance with their own eyes by looking at members' accounts and seeing what an overdrawn account and the fees look like.
Palacios said she’s been learning how to save money by watching her own spending and budgeting her $15-an-hour pay.
But working at the credit union has impacted more than just students’ bank accounts. Like Palacios, other students have also changed their post-high school plans after working at the credit union.
“Coming into high school, I really didn't know what I wanted to do at all. I just knew I was pretty decent with math,” Milosevic said. “I feel like being exposed to opportunities like this really decided for me that I want to go into a university and study business earlier.”
‘Not a simulation’
Milosevic’s favorite part of the job is marketing the credit union. His team is making TikToks and flyers and setting up tables in the school hallways to reach out to other students.
Kroner said getting members and students to join was a little slow in the beginning.
“We had to explain this is not a simulation. It's a real, live credit union with real money, real transactions,” Kroner said.
Palacios said whether the student-run credit union is a real bank is one of the most frequent questions she answers on the job. She said some adults may also not want to trust teenagers working at a bank.
But in her experience, she and her fellow student workers are trustworthy — and capable.
“We make sure that everyone's privacy is hidden, and we keep it that way,” Palacios said. “And I just want people to know that us kids can do stuff that adults think that we can't.”
