Experiencia CU, a student-run credit union at risk of being converted to a bank earlier this year, won a three-year reprieve when a dozen credit unions contributed a combined $20,000 in financial support.
"We did a fairly extensive campaign to get credit unions within 50 or 60 miles to provide financial support to secure the future of that credit union," said Mary Davis, Public Affairs Manager at the Michigan Credit Union League. "We now have a contract through the next three years."
Davis said many credit union officials said that once they learned that schools within their service areas were interested in sending students to the facility, they were happy to demonstrate their support with sponsorships.
Experiencia CU is part of the Exchange City program, a Kansas City-based corporation that teaches young people about personal finance, business fundamentals and entrepreneurship within a mini city that includes a post office, radio station, newspaper, police station and businesses. The Michigan program is housed in a 20,800-square-foot building in metro-Detroit where students take on the roles of city leaders, shop owners, and employees.
Students earn the privilege of working there by participating in 40 hours of classroom instruction on such things as how to write checks, manage loan responsibilities and conduct business transactions.
Contributing credit unions were Advantage One FCU, Brownstown Township; Wyandotte FCU, Wyandotte; Taylor Community CU, Adrian; Wyandotte Community FCU, Wyandotte; Wy-South, Wyandotte; First Catholic FCU, Taylor; Co-op Services CU, Livonia; DFCU Financial, Dearborn; MidWest Financial, Ann Arbor; Trenton FCU, Trenton; Downriver School Employees CU, Southgate, and Rivers Edge Community CU, Allen Park.
