Arnold, MO - Five students who recently completed their junior year at St. Marys High School spent up to a week at Arsenal Credit Unions main office in Arnold in late May and early June getting a first-hand look at what its like to be a marketing professional or accountant.
Three of the interns Jake Adler, Matt Jones and Mike Ulsas received a four-day crash course on marketing, branding and advertising. They learned how member/customer surveys are performed, participated in detailed discussions of various marketing initiatives, conducted online marketing research on their own and developed a direct-mail marketing piece as a group project. A visit to a local ad agency, The Accel Group, capped their internship.
The two other interns, Tim Kroger and Andrew Nowak, spent five days learning what various accounting employees do, as well as being taught accounting basics and principles, receiving an overview of the accounts payable (AP) function, and gaining an understanding of what the automated clearing house is and how decisions are made by the credit union to post or reject credit and debit transactions. Financial statements were briefly reviewed as well. As part of their last day, the students participated in Arsenals social responsibility efforts by helping make sack lunches for homeless clients of the St. Patrick Center.
All five students learned during their brief stay at Arsenal about financial products and services, how to establish credit and use it wisely, the importance of saving and investing for the future, the history of credit unions, and the differences between credit unions and banks.
"We enjoyed serving as a host site for these students and assisting them with not only their post-secondary plans, but also helping them become more financially literate while they spent time with us," said Ken Moser, vice president of marketing at the credit union.
Having an internship program for students at the high school level, especially during their junior year, is unique; making it a graduation requirement like St. Marys does is even more unique. Students earn semester credit toward their Practical Arts requirements. The week is actually part of a broader experiential career internship program that begins during a students freshman year and continues through his senior year with another internship that is optional.
"Career Internship Week is designed to provide juniors with real-world work experience in a potential career field and open their eyes to the expectations of the job world," said Alex DeMatteis, a senior guidance counselor who coordinated the program at St. Marys this year. "We want to do all we can to help our students graduate with a well-rounded education and mold them as future members of the work force."
The private, all-male Catholic high school in south St. Louis launched its program last year with a number of businesses, including Arsenal. The credit union hosted one accounting intern last year and was able to accommodate more students this year when the need arose due a larger class size.
Arsenal participates in youth mentoring as part of its social responsibility program.
Arnold, MO - Five students who recently completed their junior year at St. Marys High School spent up to a week at Arsenal Credit Unions main office in Arnold in late May and early June getting a first-hand look at what its like to be a marketing professional or accountant.
Three of the interns Jake Adler, Matt Jones and Mike Ulsas received a four-day crash course on marketing, branding and advertising. They learned how member/customer surveys are performed, participated in detailed discussions of various marketing initiatives, conducted online marketing research on their own and developed a direct-mail marketing piece as a group project. A visit to a local ad agency, The Accel Group, capped their internship.
The two other interns, Tim Kroger and Andrew Nowak, spent five days learning what various accounting employees do, as well as being taught accounting basics and principles, receiving an overview of the accounts payable (AP) function, and gaining an understanding of what the automated clearing house is and how decisions are made by the credit union to post or reject credit and debit transactions. Financial statements were briefly reviewed as well. As part of their last day, the students participated in Arsenals social responsibility efforts by helping make sack lunches for homeless clients of the St. Patrick Center.
All five students learned during their brief stay at Arsenal about financial products and services, how to establish credit and use it wisely, the importance of saving and investing for the future, the history of credit unions, and the differences between credit unions and banks.
"We enjoyed serving as a host site for these students and assisting them with not only their post-secondary plans, but also helping them become more financially literate while they spent time with us," said Ken Moser, vice president of marketing at the credit union.
Having an internship program for students at the high school level, especially during their junior year, is unique; making it a graduation requirement like St. Marys does is even more unique. Students earn semester credit toward their Practical Arts requirements. The week is actually part of a broader experiential career internship program that begins during a students freshman year and continues through his senior year with another internship that is optional.
"Career Internship Week is designed to provide juniors with real-world work experience in a potential career field and open their eyes to the expectations of the job world," said Alex DeMatteis, a senior guidance counselor who coordinated the program at St. Marys this year. "We want to do all we can to help our students graduate with a well-rounded education and mold them as future members of the work force."
The private, all-male Catholic high school in south St. Louis launched its program last year with a number of businesses, including Arsenal. The credit union hosted one accounting intern last year and was able to accommodate more students this year when the need arose due a larger class size.
Arsenal participates in youth mentoring as part of its social responsibility program.