SMART Bank Branch at Berkner High School and STEM Academy

A Brand-New RISD and Credit Union of Texas Partnership

RISD has partnered with the Credit Union of Texas to open a SMART bank branch at Berkner High School and STEM Academy in the fall, as the school district continues to provide real-world experiences and hands-on training for life after graduation.

“The idea of a CUTX branch coming to Berkner began before the pandemic,” said Austin Gunter, assistant principal of L.V. Berkner High School and STEM Academy. “We were all in a bit of shock and excitement when the project was finally greenlit. You should have seen the faces of our students, faculty and community members when we shared the news. It was a sense of awe and amazement.”

The working bank branch will be the third such overall and first in Dallas County. About two dozen students will work in the branch, and upon completion of a one-year program and fulfillment of a mandated 30 hours of community service, each student will receive a $1,000 scholarship from CUTX.

CUTX Chief Marketing Officer Eddie Army said the SMART branch allows students to gain an understanding of servant leadership while motivating them into active learning with inherent lessons in reasoning and technology use. It’s a real-world banking experience that increases financial literacy for all students and aligns with the RISD Graduate Profile as well as the state’s TEKS guidelines.

Berkner Assistant Principal Gunter said the application process was open to every student at the high school who is in a business pathway. He and the interview panel—Lakevia Wilkes, manager of the SMART branch located in Allen High School and Amy Chadbourne, Vice President of Retail Operations at CUTX— scheduled interviews for every student who applied. “Even though I knew some of the students were not qualified for a few different reasons, I wanted to extend them an opportunity to come in and interview so they could experience a professional interview process and all that entails. We want to expose all students to what they can expect after high school graduation. And interviews are a big part of being an adult and landing a job in a career that interests you.”

Berkner will provide the space that CUTX will build out while providing all the supplies, marketing, and technology needed to run the branch. As the partnership grows, RISD expects to have students from all grade levels and every learning community visit the branch at Berkner.

“There will only be one CUTX staff member at the branch that will be open to the public,” Gunter said, “All other staff members – branch manager, marketers and tellers – will be Berkner students. What I find truly amazing about this program is that the focus is not simply on running a bank branch. The focus is on improving the financial literacy of students, staff and the community. Students will be creating and delivering lessons on personal financial literacy to their peers, their families, and also will be going to RISD junior highs and elementary schools to present the project.”

The RISD students are going to benefit from this program in numerous ways. They will be learning how to develop and give presentations to various groups, which will give them more confidence with public speaking. They will earn service hours that count toward graduation requirements.

“Richardson ISD is the fifth most diverse district in Texas and Berkner High School is the most diverse school in the district,” he said. “About 57% of Berkner students are economically disadvantaged and considered at-risk. Having a working bank branch on campus gives our students an opportunity to prove themselves in a professional setting, and maybe even land a paid summer internship or a full-time job immediately after graduation. This growing partnership will provide RISD students with yet another avenue toward success after high school."