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First Credit Union offers mentorship to graduating students - FINANCIAL-24

In partnership with Brooks Secondary School, First Credit Union is once again offering its CULEAD Young Leaders Program to a group of graduating grade 12 students.

Since 2004, more than 90 local youth have participated in the 10-month mentorship program, which runs from October until August.

“Brooks Secondary School is a wonderful partner because its counsellors really promote and believe in the program,” says Tara Chernoff, First Credit Union marketing and community impact manager.

After an information session at the school in October, followed by an application process and interviews, nine students with plans for post-secondary education were selected for the 2017/2018 school year.

In addition, one international student will participate in the first half of the program before returning home. To help prepare them for future careers, individuals accepted into the program receive practical work experience and mentoring from successful business professionals on a wide range of topics.

“For the first half of the program we meet twice per month to work on skills, such as public speaking, and for workshops on personal leadership and growth, event planning and business topics they might not receive in school,” explains Chernoff, who mentors the students through the program’s public speaking component. “It is a great program; we receive fantastic feedback.”

Workshop and presentation themes depend on the interests of the group, but can include business etiquette, communications, branding, power of rapport, online portfolio development, project planning, community development, networking and interview skills.

“We ask them at the beginning of the year what they are interested in and try to gear it to that,” says Chernoff. “Last year, one of the students was really involved in [International Choral] Kathaumixw, so we held an event during the festival.”

The one mandatory component is public speaking, which is, according to organizers, an incredibly important aspect of the program.

“It’s funny because, at the start of the year, they come in and are not comfortable at all,” says Chernoff, “but by the end, when asked what the most valuable part of the program was, they all say public speaking. Even though they are nervous at the beginning, they become better at it.”

Throughout the second half of the program, students have opportunities to use their newly acquired skills during summer events First Credit Union is involved with in the community. For each event, students take turns leading or co-leading while the rest of the group provides support.

“They each get a chance to practise some of the skills and gain work experience to put on a resumé, then we flip it and at the next event someone else will lead,” explains Chernoff. “People will see them around town, especially in the summer, sporting our community impact shirts.”

Upon successful completion of the program, each student involved will receive a cash scholarship.

“The scholarship amount varies each year depending on the size of our organization; as our organization grows we have more money to give back to the community,” says Chernoff. “The more people who do business with us the more of these kinds of programs we can offer in the community.”

At the end of the process for the current group, in addition to the experience and skills gained throughout the 10 months, each young leader will receive $2,000 in scholarship funding.

“Everything we do in the community ties back to why we exist in the first place: to strengthen the well-being of our members and make a meaningful community impact,” says Chernoff. “By providing these skills and opportunities to our youth we feel that we are helping to build that capacity in our community, which is really important to make an impact; that’s why we are so passionate about doing this.”

For more information about the CULEAD program, go to firstcu.ca.

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