LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — Students at Ridgeline High School have a new way to get real-world financial experience during their school day.
Gesa Credit Union teamed up with the school to open an almost fully-functioning bank inside.
The goal of the bank is to help students develop financial literacy and healthy money habits.
“I really wish I would have had something like this in my high school so that I wouldn’t be so clueless trying to figure this out on my own,” Kelli Demarest, technical education teacher, said.
Students can use the bank to open a checking account and do basic banking like deposit money, transfer funds and withdraw a little cash during lunch.
“Now they’re getting that direct access at school. They can start early, get that practice in a safe space,” Demarest said.
The bank is also run by student interns who help their peers understand how to use the bank.
“It builds a lot of confidence that they’re not going to be thrown into the financial work without knowing anything, and they’ll at least know some of the basics of how to deposit and how to handle your checks and how to withdraw money, just to get them further ahead,” Scarlett Lambert, junior and Gesa intern, said. There are on-site banking professionals to help the interns and other students with anything they may need.
Students can open a checking account with as little as $0, and Gesa will even give them $5 to get started.
The accounts also come with some safeguards. There are no overdraft fees. If they don’t have enough money to make a purchase, the card will simply be declined. There is also no required monthly recurring payments to stay open.
“We want to start them on a really good foundation early on in high school so that they go out into the world prepared so they can lead happy lives, financially stable lives, so they don’t get into those debt snowball situations,” Demarest said.
Once students graduate, they can keep their accounts. When they turn 19, it will switch to a normal adult checking account.
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