by Abelardo de la Peña Jr.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Trying to stretch an allowance is challenging enough for high school students. At three New York City-area high schools’ student-run banks, money management is something to learn, teach others and put to use.
- Harlem’s Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change, where the majority of students are black and Latino, is the latest participant in the Capital One Bank Student-Run Branch program (MyBankTracker.com 6.2.10). The in-school banks are functional branches where students and school staff can open and maintain savings accounts.
- To become bankers, students participate in a 6-8 week summer program, train at a Capital One branch and spend a week at a local university. Student bankers run the branch and act as financial education ambassadors, teaching fellow students about money management.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
- Blacks and Latinos are the most likely to be counted as unbanked or underbanked, meaning a household has no or limited access to banking services (MyBankTracker.com 6.2.10). A program like student-run banks is beneficial to the participants, their peers and family members as they make their way through the financial services system.
RESOURCES
