How, and why, one bank helps youngsters become eager to go to college

 

The busy season for the college scholarship program is over now, but Donna Petrocco and her cohorts at Valley Bank & Trust are already preparing for the fall field trip to a college campus for the 80 third, fourth, and fifth graders who received college scholarships from the bank this spring.

College scholarships for third graders?

“People raise their eyebrows when they hear how young the kids are in our program,” says Petrocco, president and chief operating officer. “But it gets kids and their families talking about college early.” Middle school, she adds, is a tough time to talk with kids, and high school is almost too late to start talking about college.

The bank’s college education program, now in its sixth year, requires participants to write an essay on what might make a great career, and how to get there. “You get a lot saying vets, astronauts, and—thanks to TV’s CSI series—crime scene investigators,” says Petrocco. “Some mention a specific college they want to attend.”

This year about 750 students signed up for the program, and about 80 received $100 scholarships. “It’s not really a lot of money, but it is to an eight-year-old,” says Petrocco. “We encourage them to put it in a CD and add to it with money earned from mowing lawns or birthdays.”

The scholarships are only part of this unusual bank-run program. Providing information and stimulating interest in college among youngsters and their parents is equally important.

Petrocco became a believer in promoting college education after meeting with Bob Stuart, a college advisor, who called on Valley Bank in 2001. She liked his program, and contracted with him to work with the bank, seeing it as a great way to reach out to kids and their families. Valley Bank & Trust has 14 locations and assets of $260 million.

Stuart, who runs Yarmouth Educational Consultants, Yarmouth, Me. (www.yecinc.com), supports Valley Bank’s program in numerous ways. He contributes two newsletters, the weekly “All About College,” and the monthly “52 College Questions.” They are e-mailed to parents of students who have participated in the bank’s programs and distributed in the branches. Stuart also makes four to five trips to Brighton each year to meet with customer families individually, conducts in-school workshops, and makes the arrangements with a college for the bank’s fall visitation with students. Last fall, Valley Bank took 50 scholarship recipients to Colorado State for the day.

It’s not about numbers
Stuart says that over six years, more than 4,000 students and parents have learned about colleges, college majors, career opportunities, and financial aid from Valley Bank’s program. The bank helps families estimate what college will cost them and how much they might hope to receive in financial aid, says Stuart, not just how expensive college can be. More importantly, the program helps students and parents make smart choices about their college opportunities to maximize the return on their investment in education.

The bank prepares certificates for the scholarship recipients, and arranges for a pizza party for them at the school. All participants in the program also get a free tee shirt.

Three bank employees read all the essays—about 750 this year—and grade them. Petrocco has been in charge of the program herself from the start. Stuart maintains that personal commitment from the top is vital for such a program to succeed. This year, a new Director of Marketing has been helping Petrocco manage the program, which is busiest in the period of January through March.

With a marketing director, Petrocco says the bank can do a better job of tracking the impact of the program.

Anecdotally she knows that when the kids open an account with their scholarship money, often their parents will open an account, too. But Petrocco is adamant that the real benefit is not in the numbers but in its contribution to the bank’s community outreach, and in the name recognition it brings. Valley competes with innumerable other banks and credit unions and has fashioned a niche for itself, she says.

“People know us as the bank that gives out scholarships,” says Petrocco, but in a way that is quite different from a traditional college scholarship for a graduating high school senior. She says they never push products in any aspect of the program, but they always have people available to answer questions.

“Our message about the importance of higher education for the children of our communities has helped us build solid relationships with many educators and community leaders. Over time the long-term benefits are significant,” she says.

Nevertheless, numbers are part of that equation. In six years, 360 students have been awarded scholarships by Valley Bank & Trust and over 4,000 students have participated in school workshops and other scholarship activities.

That’s at least 360 students with a banking relationship with Valley Bank & Trust and over 4,000 families who recognize the bank as a community leader that really cares, Stuart notes. More importantly, he says, it is more than 4,000 students in these small communities who now see a much clearer path from where they are today to a college education.

Complementing the college education program, VB&T also participates in the ABA Education Foundation’s National Teach Children to Save Day and its Get Smart About Credit Day.

Build an interest in learning
In his 18 years of work as an independent college advisor for community banks, Bob Stuart has visited many areas with very unclear economic futures. He sees education as the only real, long-term solution for these communities. “It is a long-term solution that requires a great deal of patience and conviction, but it is truly the only real solution to healthy, sustainable, community development,” says Stuart.

In many communities where Stuart has worked, banks are the only business entity truly attached to the long-term economic growth and opportunity of the students and families that make up the community. But to Stuart, support of higher education goes well beyond student loans and credit cards and savings programs. Most national studies, he says, have indicated that cost is the greatest barrier to a college education. That is misleading, he maintains. Information, or a lack of it, is the true barrier.

“Accurate, honest, and local information is the most valuable resource a community bank can provide,” he states.

 

Such a commitment needn’t be only a matter of “giving back to our community,” says Stuart. “Success in banking depends on relationships. Relationships built on interest rates are fleeting. Relationships built around a common concern for the community and the future of its children can be enduring. These relationships can blossom far beyond a discussion about education and kids.” BJ 

 

 

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