We had a very successful Navigator Credit Union opening today for our 2019-2020 school year! We have added new branch positions and defined original ones for the Grade 4 students (Branch Specialist, Greeter, Marketing Specialist, Service Specialist) with corresponding lanyards created by HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union staff and sporting our new Navigator Credit Union logo for this year.
IPAPA officer and parent, Marised Gillette (Paul ’28, JR ’17), graciously recreated the winning Grade 5 No Bake Challenge PBL recipe, and it was the featured menu item sold along with our regular libations of hot cocoa and coffee. Debbie Yoshino, Computer Science teacher, opened the Finance Club to Grade 9 students this year and they are taking the reins in mentoring the new Grade 6 students on Navigator Café processes and customer service.
In addition to the non-stop bank transactions, the café line was out the door and down the hall until we cut the students off at the usual 7:55 AM pre-class time. The Grade 4 students were able to open three new accounts for two 4th graders and one Kindergartener, and completed deposits. As it is every week, we had two staff members from HawaiiUSA FCU on hand to provide support, and they have been instrumental to our on-going process and just tremendous partners. The HawaiiUSA FCU staff came to IPA last week to hold training workshops with our Grade 4 students in bank transactions and customer service skills. In addition to all of the student learning, what is great about our “coffee shop” model is that it allows for parents to engage with their kids because we provide a place for both adults and kids to relax and have a warm beverage and a quick morning bite while doing a little banking together.
Contributed by Katherine Jones, Elementary Sustainability and Innovation Coordinator