Earlier this year I described a trifecta opportunity for credit unions. The three challenges were:
- Tapping the entrepreneurial interest of the current college generation;
- Supporting new credit union charters to plant seeds for future relevance and growth;
- Providing leadership to prioritize opportunities for those left behind (DEI) due to historical inequalities.
An example combining all three elements was Gary Perez’s efforts as CEO of USC Credit Union to create a project to charter student led credit unions at the 107 historically black colleges and universities across the country.
Recently I found the following program that would seem to be an ideal way to meet all three opportunities. And maybe jump start Gary’s efforts. It reads as follows:
Student Internship Program
The OCDCU 2000 College Student Summer Internship Program was the most successful to date. The program creates partnerships between low-income designated and other credit unions (large or small) and college juniors and seniors to train and develop a pool of potential future credit union managers. The students selected are business, finance, or marketing majors.
With technical assistance grant stipends, the 2000 summer intern program matched 29 college student interns with 58 different credit unions. Stipends provided the interns totaled $72,500 in 2000 compared with $67,500 in 1999 for 27 students.
Source: pg. 16 NCUA 2000 Annual Report
Wouldn’t a relaunch of this joint initiative now be a powerful signal of the credit union system’s responsiveness to today’s special challenges? Especially in an increasingly tight labor market?