HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — On Wednesday mornings, the cafeteria at Fishhawk Creek Elementary School in Hillsborough County gets turned into a student-run credit union.
Brynn Latimer is a fifth grader who works as an ambassador for the branch, helping students save money.
“When someone comes up to the table, I take their account number and their name and what they’re depositing,” said Latimer.
From a few cents to a couple of dollars, students can add however much money they’d like to their savings.
“I deposited money in my Suncoast savers card. And so I got like a sticker on it,” said third grader Branden Hernandez.
That sticker is part of an incentive for putting money in.
“When they fill the whole saver card up, they get $5. Like a $5 reward,” said Latimer.
This is all part of a program run by Suncoast Credit Union to teach kids how to save money at an early age.
“The program got started when we noticed that there was a gap in saving habits for our students, so we wanted to make sure that we gave the opportunity to start saving at a very early age,” said Jose Guevara, Youth Outreach Manager at Suncoast Credit Union.
It’s a skill that teachers said is priceless, and even their youngest students get excited about learning.
“They learn how to fill out deposit slips, they learn the value of savings, and they see their deposit slips come in, and they get very excited to see those numbers increase,” said Jodi Keedy, teacher at Fishhawk Elementary.
“It’s so important for students to be able to save their money. We talked about a lot this year, we’re saving for a rainy day, because you never know when you’re going to want that extra money,” said Stacey Jones, teacher at Fishhawk Elementary.
Suncoast has several student-run branches at schools in our community, but the one at Fishhawk Creek Elementary is one of their most successful.
“For me, I’ve saved quite a bit. Like, I’ve had $70 in the past that I’ve saved,” said Latimer.
“I’ve saved a lot of money here, so I just want to do this for a very long time, and it’s been really helping me with my life,” said Hernandez.
The goal is that by the time they get to high school, they already have a decent amount of money saved, and are ahead of the curve on financial literacy.
“We hope that continues obviously into the future, into when they’re adults saving the money and not just spending it,” said Jones.
So far, so good.
“It’s important to save because you need money to do a lot of things. To pay for a house or something that you really wanted in life,” said Latimer.
“It just makes me very proud that they actually are utilizing the program that we’re providing to them,” said Guevara.
Currently, this program is in 20 schools statewide, but Suncoast Credit Union plans to expand to more districts and schools in the future.
