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Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Northeast Community Credit Union Chief Financial Officer Teresa Arnold welcomes everyone to the ribbon cutting for the new school branch at Elizabethton High School.

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders State Rep. John Holsclaw speaks to the importance that the legislation has put on training students and how the NCCU branch will play into that for the students at EHS.

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Elizabethton High School Principal Dr. Jon Minton explains how the new NCCU branch at the school will allow students to see the real world of how finance works.

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders State Rep. John Holsclaw - (R-1st District) and EHS school principal Dr. Jon Minton cut the ribbon to officially open the Northeast Community Credit Union branch at the high school.

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Members of the NCCU staff and board join students and Elizabethton City School administration for a ribbon cutting on the new branch inside the EHS Commons area.

BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
Northeast Community Credit Union opened its second branch in a local school with a ribbon-cutting at Elizabethton High School on Wednesday.

Bank dignitaries and board members, state Rep. John Holsclaw – (R-District 1), Elizabethton City Schools Administration, and Chamber of Commerce personnel gathered alongside students for the ribbon cutting in the school’s commons area.

“Beginning in January, we will be working with the credit union staff on a 16-week curriculum that they have,” said Dusty Duncan – Partnership Coordinator for EHS. “It will be everything financial wise including opening a bank account, securing a loan, credit cards, bankruptcy, and other things as the students will be working with the Northeast Community Credit Union staff one day a week.

“There will be four students per semester and we look to continue that as we move forward. They will be designing a logo for the EHS branch and today is just a ribbon-cutting to kick that off.”

The branch will be operating in the Commons area of the school for approximately two hours each week. This will account for four hours of business using at least two student workers for each hour of business.

Positions will not be paid but are opportunities for students to learn and experience certain aspects of working for a professional employer.

NCCU will provide the equipment which includes computers, printers, forms, supplies, cash, and coins to go along with training, security, and supervision to perform transactions for credit union members.

Those transactions include: accepting and inputting account applications; fulfilling service requests for members and potential members; educate workers and other students on a wide number of financial topics relevant to real life.

“About three years ago we opened our first credit union branch at Unaka High School and it has been an amazing success,” said Teresa Arnold – Chief Financial Officer at NCCU. “We want to give those same advantages to the students here at Elizabethton High School and they are not only learning life skills but the students at these branches also learning skills that they will continue to use practically in their lives as they get their first jobs, as they buy their first car, as they learn how to manage and squeeze a budget as they learn to save for things as they considered their future.”

NCCU will conduct prospective student interviews and provide feedback regarding the interview process. The school’s students and staff are eligible for credit union services at this location. The public will not be served at this location.

“The legislative body is big into education, technical training, and providing students the opportunities to learn because the students are our future and we want to see them be successful and grow,” said Holsclaw.

The new branch will allow students not only to learn but to experience financial experience with a banking institution.

“Our teachers do a really good job and our students engage in a personal finance experience and learning what that looks like in real life,” said school principal Dr. Jon Minton. “But what the credit union experience will allow is putting that experience to work and seeing it in a real-world perspective in ways they might not see outside the school doors.”