Educating Younger Students

By Jason Jacks
Premium Article Courtesy of:
Apple Federal Credit Union

Lee High School students Donia Ghorab, 16, left, and Zohra Amin, 17, will be working at the school's Apple Federal Credit Union branch this school year.

Before she waits in line for a plate of chicken nuggets with steamed rice, Lee High School senior Zohra Amin checks to make sure she has the two bucks to pay for it.

Fortunately for Amin, and students at a dozen other schools in Fairfax County, if she doesn't, cash is only a short walk away from her locker.

"I always came in when I needed money for lunch. ... It is so convenient because it's right next to the cafeteria," said the 17-year-old about the student-run Apple Federal Credit Union branch set up in a small room inside the Springfield school. She happens to be its manager.

Apple credit unions have popped up in schools throughout Fairfax County, Virginia since the first one debuted at Lee in 1995. According to David Gorham, Apple's coordinator for its student-run branches, the credit union has locations in 13 high and secondary schools in the county, with about a dozen more in surrounding districts. Five more openings in the county are planned for this year, including one at the new South County Secondary School.

At these branches, students and school staff alike can open accounts, apply for car loans, make deposits and withdraw up to $20 a day.

"Let me make this point now. It's not about the business. It's only about education," said Gorham, who stressed that staff at Apple, a locally based credit union that caters mostly to students and teachers, gives talks to students on being financially responsible before it opens a branch in a school.

He said their branches give the students who run them a leg up on the world of business and their customers the convenience of being able to make a transaction without leaving school grounds.

Ashley Elmore, a business teacher at Lee who unlocks the Lee branch's safe in the mornings, said the Apple at Lee is "all student run. We take a back seat as teachers."

Three students work each shift at the branch when it is open during school lunch hours. And, acting as a bank security guard, a school staff member is always posted outside the branch's entrance.

Diane Birch, Lee's teacher liaison with Apple, said the branch, which sees 10 to 15 customers a day, currently has about 750 members-most being students learning financial life-lessons.

She said students who frequent the branch are learning to sock money away at an early age.

"We are encouraging students to save," she said.

Carol Wilt, another Lee business teacher who heads up the school's award-winning Future Business Leaders of America program, said those involved with the branch have also been encouraging fiscal responsibility outside of Lee. In the past, student employees have taught finance classes to adults, helped set up branches at other schools and talked with elementary school students on the benefits of saving their change.

She says, "If you want to be somebody in this country, you need to know how to handle your money."

Commenting on the students running the Lee branch, Birch said many, including Amin, desire to continue on into the banking industry after they leave Lee.

She hopes lessons learned while working at the Apple branch are enough to open some doors.

"Hopefully, at some point, it will help them get a job," she said.