MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — April is Financial Literacy Month, making it a great time for young people to start thinking about their money. At Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, students are getting a rare chance to make 'cents' of their dollars by operating a real Redstone Federal Credit Union branch.
Run entirely by students during their lunch period, the branch is the first of its kind inside a Tennessee high school.
"It’s a real bank in a real school," student Chris Deva said.
Supervised by teachers, students train and work with real bank employees to build their resumes while learning personal finance.
"I'm actually handling people's money," student Stephen Nelson said.
The partnership between the school and the bank launched around five years ago. Since then, more than 100 students have taken the capstone course.
"I feel like we really benefit from being able to get, like, a really good quality job as a teenager, and we're getting class credit for it. So, it's like a golden opportunity for us almost," Nelson said.
CTE teacher Jeanette Noffsinger, who is in charge and helped launch the program, said the branch serves the entire school community.
"We have members here within this school, teachers and students. They can make deposits, withdrawals, get change, pay certain loans if they have one through Redstone," Noffsinger said.
Redstone’s School Program manager Rebecca Ashford said the hands-on experience is invaluable.
"I think people forget a lot of times that the basic finances are really important. Like when you swipe your debit card, they come out of your checking account, and this is something they're learning, and then they get to help their peers," Ashford said.
Principal Justin Smith said the program provides essential real-world experience.
"To start thinking about, wow, what does it look like for my own personal finance, what does it look like for my own banking decisions? How does it look for me to interact with a business and a company? And I just think those are the real world kind of experiences that we'll want to make sure that our students have," Smith said.
The program has now expanded to a second high school in Rutherford County. School officials say districts in states like New York have already reached out for advice on starting their own student-run branches.
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