Student-Run Bank Celebrates Grand Opening

Student bankers and community leaders celebrated a new branch of the Park Federal Savings Bank at the Curie Metro High School with a grand opening ceremony on April 12. Arne Duncan, chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, presided over the ribbon cutting.

Students from Curie’s Education To Careers ( ETC) accounting cooperative program operate the full-service branch of the bank, the first time in Illinois that students are running a full-service bank in a public high school. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law’s Community Investment Unit initiated the ETC program. The Curie branch is the result of a partnership of the Shriver Center, the Park Federal Savings Bank, the Chicago Public Schools, private donors, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Center for Economic Education of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Ten students in Curie’s ETC program have been trained and now work at other Park Federal Savings Bank branches as tellers, savings counselors, and teller supervisors. They serve as the Curie branch’s advisory board. The student bankers developed marketing strategies and helped set the branch’s policies, ranging from the hours of operation to the products and services to be offered.

“This is a great example of how schools can offer real-world experience that enables students to move into ‘high tech’ careers and college,” said Duncan. “It is a unique opportunity for those students to learn hands-on about the mainstream financial world.”

For more information, contact Dory Rand at 312.368.2007.