KAILUA-KONA — Kealakehe High School on Thursday celebrated the rededication and blessing of the Kealakehe Student Credit Union, giving students an opportunity to learn financial literacy and save up some cash at the same time.
Though in existence since 2005, the credit union’s services, which include check cashing and debit accounts, have moved to the school’s lunchroom, improving accessibility for students.
The credit union is part of a program by the Hawaii Community Federal Credit Union. The student credit union program was established in 1972 with the opening of the state’s first student credit union at Konawaena High School.
And program alumni have gone on to accomplish big things.
In fact, Tricia Buskirk, the credit union’s president and chief executive officer is one of them. She was a part of the Konawaena Student Credit Union at that school 30 years ago, she said.
“Since then, my entire career has been in financial institutions,” she said.
There are now three student credit unions in the program. The program at Kealakehe has been around since 2005 and there’s also a student credit union at Kohala High School.
Student credit unions, said Buskirk, create opportunities for students to not only learn financial literacy and how they can start saving money, but it also provides opportunities for students who want to learn the working parts of a credit union.
Each student credit union has a student-composed board of directors and is staffed by part-time student tellers.
Rheanne Godot, a 16-year-old junior at Kealakehe, is the board’s president.
Godot said that when students know they have their own knowledge and authority over their money, they’re better able to make decisions about how to use that money. The real-world experience the credit union offers empowers students to make better decisions, she said.
Godot also said the move to open up the credit union’s office in the cafeteria — it was previously set up in a third-floor room — will also improve accessibility for students.
“Just to have the access here, it’s a convenient place,” she said.
Currently, the student credit union offers services that include making deposits, withdrawals and cashing checks. Students who are at least 15 1/2 can open up a debit card, she added.
But aside from its financial services, the student credit union is also a chance to expand education by bringing the real world into local schools, said Kealakehe High School principal Wil Murakami.
“It is another way of how we are bringing relevance from the working world … into the school as part of the kids’ education,” he said.
The credit union, he explained, can help to “blur the line” between classrooms and the real world, making these practical applications more apparent to students.
The credit union’s office in the school’s lunchroom was built at no charge to the school.
General contractor Bill LeBus took on the project for free.
“One of the things that always made me feel good is doing something for the community,” he said.
LeBus said the whole project took about five months.
When he was a student, he said, student credit unions weren’t around.
“It’s a great opportunity for kids to start thinking about saving,” LeBus said.
Murakami said LeBus’ willingness to take up the project at no charge — the principal said construction could have otherwise cost more than $5,000—demonstrates the concept of interdependence for students, a concept he wants students to recognize and embrace.
Education, he said, often focuses and promotes independence, giving students the ability to be self-sufficient.
That also needs to be balanced with cultivating in students a desire to come together collectively and have people care about each other, he said, each contributing their independent skills, thereby improving everyone’s quality of life and making the community stronger.
And the credit union, by putting students behind the counter, is also helping to foster those interpersonal relationship skills, said student credit union faculty adviser John Mitchell.
“Handling another human being’s money is very personal,” Mitchell said. “It is deep service.”
Regardless of whether students involved in the credit union go on to pursue careers in finance, Mitchell said, the program hones skills needed in any job.
“Here on Earth, it’s the people business,” he said.
