FOUNDATION
Foundation Foundation’s College Internship Program Pilot Proves Beneficial to Students and Credit Unions Leonard Parkhurst, director, Southeastern Credit Union Foundation, LSCU The Southeastern Credit Union Foundation (SECUF) successfully launched its college internship program in 2012. Students were matched with small asset size credit unions, giving the students valuable skills and experience to enhance their classroom learning. Participating credit unions benefited from the fresh perspectives offered by the students and gained valuable assistance in their day-to-day operations. According to April Ales, LSCU Member Services Specialist who coordinated the pilot program for the foundation, students must meet basic eligibility requirements. “The prospective interns must attend a college or university in Alabama or Florida, be a junior or senior, have a 3.0 overall grade point average, and be majoring in finance/ accounting, business, economics, marketing, communications, or a related field,” Ales said. Students must complete the SECUF internship application form and submit at least one recommendation from a faculty member at their college or university. For consideration of internship placement, a credit union must establish and submit a job description for the internship position as well as submit written goals and objectives for the internship position. A template for developing the goals and objectives for the intern is provided. Templates for mid-point and final evaluations are also provided. Applications and other materials are available on the SECUF website, www.supportourcucommunity.org.
Erin Tupper, center back row, helps at the Tallahassee-Leon FCU’s bake sale fundraiser.
For the pilot program, interns were placed at Tallahassee-Leon Federal Credit Union, Flag Credit Union, and Community South Credit Union. Two interns were placed at Tallahassee-Leon Federal Credit Union, Erin Tupper from Florida State University and Shelby
Dell from Florida A&M University. Michael Akers, vice president, marketing & business development at Tallahassee-Leon Federal Credit Union said that the internship program brought huge value to TLFCU. “Being a smaller credit union, we all wear lots of hats. Having their extra hands provided additional capacity in the marketing area, as well as in other areas of the credit union. The interns were able to assist with everything from member development activities, answering phones, and writing articles for our website. Overall, their involvement helped us work towards our two biggest tasks this year—efficiency and loan growth.” Intern Shelby Dell, a public relations major, said that she was excited about the internship from the time she received the outline of her duties. On her first day at the credit union, she was surprised by how nice everyone was. “It wasn’t awkward or hard to ask questions, and everyone was always ready and willing to lend a helping hand. I think Shelby Dell (r), a public relations major at one of the contributing factors FAMU, interned at Tallahassee-Leon FCU. of why the internship was such a success for me was because I had a team of people backing me up whenever I needed guidance or help,” she said. Erin Tupper, a marketing and management major, was eager to put classroom learning into practice. “Even before I started the internship, I set many expectations for myself. One expectation that I had was to learn more about financial institutions, and specifically credit unions. I also wanted to gain management experience, in terms of dealing with individual member expectations and problems. Being that I am also a marketing major in addition to a management major, I wanted to learn more about online marketing in terms of Facebook, Twitter, and the credit union’s official website,” she said. “After completing my internship at TLFCU, I feel that I accomplished everything that I set out to do,” Tupper added. “All of my expectations were met and some were even way exceeded.”
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SIGNAL: Vol. 3, Issue 4
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