Huron Valley State Bank Earns Prestigious Financial Literacy Award
Huron Valley State Bank earned the Michigan Bankers Association’s (MBA) Financial Literacy Award for its work over the past several years in providing financial education to the community. The award was officially presented to bank representatives and received by Shelley Dickerson, Assistant Vice President and Branch Manager at the MBA BEST Annual Conference and Trade Show on March 5th in Traverse City, Michigan.
Huron Valley State Bank has been actively involved in financial literacy since 2011 when the bank opened its first student run bank at Spring Mills Elementary in Highland, Michigan under the direction of Shelley Dickerson. Since then, four additional partnerships have been formed equating to more than half of our elementary schools within our district offering this program.
“This is a tremendous honor,” said Shelley Dickerson, Assistant Vice President and Branch Manager, “When we started our first partnership with Spring Mills Elementary it was warmly embraced by Principal, Randy Muffley. That was just the beginning of a focused initiative dedicated to helping young people receive important financial education that will one day be valuable for their future. Our program has truly evolved over the years.”
The student run banks are located inside each of the schools and teach hands-on financial literacy, money management, and provide a real-life banking experience. Fifth grade students applied and interviewed for positions at the start of the school year. They were trained for actual banking jobs to accept money from their fellow classmates for deposit into their bank accounts. The Bank at School program runs once a month in each of the elementary schools from November to May, with a celebration at the end of the school year.
The five local elementary schools, Spring Mills (partnership formed in 2011), Johnson (partnership formed in 2014), Heritage (partnership formed in 2016), Country Oaks (partnership formed in 2017) and Kurtz (partnership formed in 2018) are overseen by a HVSB (adult) branch manager and have two HVSB (adult) bank representatives on site at the schools for banking day. All the financial literacy programs, including Bank at School are under the direction of the bank’s Marketing Director, Sheri Miles. Each of these schools has anywhere from 400-600 students and handles anywhere from 10 to 30 student deposits per school banking day.
“Five elementary schools equate to recruiting, interviewing, training and running a banking day with a celebration party at the end of the year for each of these schools. It is definitely a big commitment, but something we are proud to deliver to the community,” said Sheri Miles, Marketing Director.
In addition to working with the elementary schools, Huron Valley State Bank has been a guest speaker in the fall and spring at Milford High School in a Personal Finance Class for several years, presenting on topics including the basics of money, lending, budgeting, and financial scams. Through this program, the bank reached over 500 students over the past 3 years. Most recently, Shelley Dickerson, Susan Vanderwill, Melissa Herron and Sheri Miles presented to 6th graders at White Lake Middle School during their RIOT time (also known as seminar or homeroom) for four days in November on topics relating to money, how a bank works, savings, and writing a check. Lastly, the bank has assisted several local Boy and Girl Scout troops earn their financial literacy badge.
“At Huron Valley State Bank we take great pride in giving back to the community. The partnerships with the elementary schools and the presentations to the High Schools and White Lake Middle School are a big part of that strategy to provide the real-life financial management skills our students will need as adults,” said Jack Shubitowski, President and CEO.