Student banks giving kids a reason to save
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By KEVIN ABOUREZK / Lincoln Journal Star
HEBRON — The 9-year-old boy doesn’t waste any time making a deposit at the TC Titan Branch of Thayer County Bank.
Logan Hellbusch knows that to delay at the teller counter means he won’t have as much time before class to pick out a prize.
Caleb Krupicka, 11 — wearing an orange TC Titan Branch T-shirt as he works behind the counter at the Thayer Central Elementary School student bank — can understand Logan’s dilemma.
Student bank tellers at Clinton Elementary have developed a list of 10 money smart tips:
1. If you want it but you don’t need it, don’t buy it!
2. The most important thing about savings is that you have to save!
3. Stop wasting money, and you’ll save a lot.
4. Think before you spend your money, because if you don’t think, you might not have enough later.
5. If you want to go to college, save up some money starting while you’re in second grade.
6. Open a savings account in a bank and only use it for big things.
7. You should save your money so when you grow up, if you have a huge bill, you can pay for it.
8. Put a bucket in the hallway at home and put coins in it until you have $1 or more to deposit in the bank at school.
9. Save up money; it’s more valuable than a diamond, even if it’s just one dollar.
10. Make a budget.
A fellow depositor with the student bank, Caleb also enjoys the prizes he gets for keeping money with the bank.
“It’s cool to see their faces when they get their prizes,” Caleb says.
Last week, a little known Nebraska advocacy group spearheaded a weeklong effort aimed at promoting economic education across the state.
Roger Butters, president of the Nebraska Council on Economic Education, admits it’s been a little easier as of late to convince education officials and educators of the importance of financial literacy.
It hasn’t always been that way.
The fall of investment giants such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merill Lynch and the ongoing economic crisis have awakened most people to the need for economic education, Butters said.
Before, he said, he would have to spend a few minutes at the start of every presentation explaining the importance of financial literacy.
“I don’t have to spend that time right now,” he said. “It turns out financial education is important.”
And that helps explain why this year the Nebraska Financial Education Coalition — which includes nearly 100 partners like the council — found so many willing partners in hosting Money Smart Nebraska week events across the state last week.
Money Smart Nebraska events included educational seminars and activities geared toward making Nebraskans of all ages more money savvy. Businesses, financial institutions, schools, libraries, nonprofits and government agencies hosted seminars last week.
Programs covered everything from kids and banking to investing in uncertain times.
“You think about the economic problems we’re having right now,” Butters said. “All it is is economic illiteracy.”
Helping with last week’s events is only part of what the Nebraska Council on Economic Education does each year to promote financial literacy.
Headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business Administration, the council also distributes economic curricula and offers post-graduate training to teachers, as well as classes, workshops and more than $30,000 in scholarships.
For students, the council hosts the Nebraska Stock Market Game, Economics Challenge and Finance Challenge — competitions that seek to make education fun and competitive.
“The competitions are designed to get the children to buy into their education,” Butters said.
Money Smart Nebraska week started Nov. 10 with a breakfast at the governor’s mansion, where state officials honored economic education efforts by schools.
Among those schools honored was Thayer Central Elementary School in Hebron, which hosts a student bank every Tuesday morning, and Clinton Elementary School in Lincoln.
The 7-year-old boy with freckles wearing a Wrigley Field T-shirt lights up as he talks about the wonderful prizes he wins when he deposits money at his school’s student bank.
“If I bring $5 more, I get something else,” Taylor Lengel says, describing the incentives students at Clinton get for depositing money in the school’s US Bank branch.
Having just reached $15, Taylor got a blue magnet that says “US Bank.” And he’s just a tantalizing $5 away from getting a US Bank highlighter.
“I have to get it,” he says, his brow furrowing with determination.
At Clinton Elementary, 43 percent of second- through fifth-graders (the only grades allowed to participate) are official student bank depositors.
Seeing the determination on at least one second-grader’s face, it’s easy to see why the school’s student bank is so popular.
Of course, behind the fleeting joy of getting new play things, children also learn some serious lessons, said Matt Oltman, instructional coordinator at Clinton.
“It teaches them the value of money,” he said. “It gives them an idea how important saving is.”
It is the fourth year the school has run the student bank, which allows students to make deposits every Tuesday morning. US Bank matches new student depositors’ first deposit up to $5.
Students are required to leave their money in their accounts until they either move from the school or graduate from fifth grade, Oltman said.
Some students use the money to buy bicycles. Some put it away for college. But all of the 131 student depositors and nine tellers acquire skills, such as math and working with others, Oltman said.
“It’s very good socially for them,” he said.
You don’t have to convince Monique Saunsoci, a student teller and depositor whose three-year-old account is sitting strong at nearly $150.
As a teller, it’s the fifth-grader’s job to keep track of student deposit and account balances. She also gets to help hand out incentives — prizes like pencils and highlighters — students get for reaching certain deposit levels.
Her own ability to squirrel away money has given Monique’s parents another reason to offer her praise.
“Whenever I get a prize, they always tell me good job or something,” she said.
At Thayer Central Elementary School in Hebron, staff have worked to make the student bank resemble as closely as possible a real bank.
Students are required to keep quiet as they wait their turn to make a deposit or check their balances.
Tellers are expected to serve as role models for the other students, and all are expected to be bank depositors as well.
And that hasn’t been a problem at all for the student tellers, said Principal Kurk Wiedel.
“We want that to be like a job, like a first job, and I think they take it fairly seriously,” he said.
Students who want to be tellers must fill out applications and be interviewed by school and bank staff, he said.
Marcia Gress — a loan officer for Thayer County Bank in Hebron, which sponsors the student bank — said student tellers have embraced their responsibilities.
They’ve gone so far as to create posters advertising the bank and placing those posters in strategic locations, such as near water fountains where students congregate. They’ve made announcements on the school intercom on student bank days, Gress said.
“That’s all the kids; that’s their thinking,” she said.
For McCall Madsen, a sixth-grade teller at Thayer Central Elementary, the reward for promoting the bank and helping fellow students keep track of their deposits is simple.
“I like seeing people smile and making them happy,” she said.
Reach Kevin Abourezk at 473-7225 or kabourezk@journalstar.com.
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