STEPHANIE HERZOG

In recent years the American education system has been constantly under intense scrutiny, often criticized as not being a practical preparation for the “real world”. There is in fact a grain of truth in that statement; high schools especially teach their students from textbooks, rather than with practical applications. With little to no experience in simple matters such as money management, our kids are entering the collegiate world or the workforce with a huge disability.

Right here in our community, Vero Beach High School has been addressing these issues head on by cultivating a student run bank right on the main campus. The program began in 2007 with the help of Indian River National Bank, which sent out members of their own staff to set up the necessary computer programs and train a group of around twenty Accounting 3 students how to manage the bank. The program was named Indian Bank, after the VBHS fighting Indians, and spearheaded (no pun intended) by the new accounting teacher, Alison Moody.

Alison had originally become a teacher by accident- she was an ever present volunteer at Glendale Elementary, where her fourth grade son went to school. When a fourth grade teaching opening became available, Glendale invited her to teach and, with a business degree and a son at the school, Alison was the ideal person to take the job. Then, after seven years of teaching at Glendale Elementary, she came to Vero Beach High School excited to teach older students her passion, accounting.

The year that Alison joined VBHS, she replaced the former accounting teacher mid-semester, and thus had to hit the ground running. She took over the fledgling Indian Bank program as it was being started up by then department head Bobby Miller, and hand picked her most skilled and trustworthy students to begin training to work at the new student bank. Originally, the Indian Bank was set up in one section of Alison Moody’s own classroom, and held bank hours during both lunch periods. These days, the Indian Bank has developed into a much larger program, with its own room located off the lunch patio for convenience.

During both lunch periods, the student bank is open for business, handling all finance for the students and teachers. That means in addition to offering high interest student savings accounts, Indian Bank serves as a hub for anything money related within the school, i.e. every prom ticket payment and field trip fee is managed by the accounting students at Indian Bank. Each of the student staff members has a job, such as a greeter or a teller, which they all alternate every day, ensuring each student learns every job. In the early days of the bank, each student employee was selected by Alison Moody, but these days each student must be Quickbooks certification, meaning able to pass an exam on the popular bookkeeping program, giving each teenager a valuable business qualification.

In addition to their responsibilities as bank associates, these accounting students also get extremely beneficial experience in interpersonal relations as well as marketing. The students that work at the bank also do presentations to different classes explaining the benefits of a saving money in a bank account with a high interest rate of 5%, as well as banking on a broader scope. In a time when most high schoolers are learning from text books all day every day, the VBHS Indian Bank is a unique way for teachers to impart real world understanding to their students.

Overseeing the twenty or so bank employees is young bank president Spencer Woodward, who is a senior and an Accounting 3 student. He is a unique asset to Indian Bank, having worked at the bank last year as an Accounting 2 student. As a dual enrollment student, Spencer is able to work in the bank during both lunch periods each day. With his extensive knowledge of all bank processes, Spencer able to teach his fellow students the ropes, as well as develop his finance skills.

Now that Indian Bank has firmly taken root at VBHS, with about 100 students currently holding personal savings accounts and more signing up every day, the stage is set to better prepare the next generation for life after high school. Instead of being thrown headfirst into the deep end of life, completely ignorant of basic ideas like money management, students at VBHS are slowly learning how to swim. With innovative programs like Indian Bank developing here in our community, we can all look forward to a happier more successful tomorrow.