St. Cloud Federal Credit Union Matches Grant Funding for Sartell High School Financial Education and Micro-financing Initiative

St. Cloud Federal Credit is proud to announce a $2,500 grant submission to the Minnesota Credit Union Foundation on behalf of Sartell High School was awarded. The credit union also committed to matching the grant if it was awarded; the high school now has $5,000 to fund a financial education program focused on helping people in developing countries.

The social studies department of Sartell High School is now teaching Human Geography to create a lending curriculum to fund student led micro-financing to people in developing countries around the world. The 9th grade students will create development plans for different parts of the world which will be presented to a panel. Finalized plans will result in research for micro-lending opportunities in those areas of the world selected. In turn the students will partner with Kiva, a global non-profit organization that helps people around the world alleviate poverty through small loans.

Sartell High School Teacher Roy Snyder researched and launched the program. Since the project’s inception, he has seen the students gain an immediate increase in financial and world knowledge and issues surrounding poverty, “these are real life stories; the biggest thing I see is empathy and increasing understanding that helping is not about a handout but about a partnership. They are acquiring financial and world knowledge, confidence and skills to develop passion by having to present their findings that result in a real impact,” stated Snyder.

Jed A. Meyer, President and CEO of St. Cloud Federal Credit Union submitted the grant and committed to the matching funds. The credit union created a panel of experts that the students will present to in order to help determine which countries will receive the grant money. “We are really excited about this opportunity to help kids in our community! We care about improving financial education and this program accomplishes that for these 9th grade students. In addition to the students, this program is improving the lives of people around the world and is an awesome opportunity that we are extremely proud to be a part of,” stated Meyer.

Most of the loans granted will be between $50 and $100 and will help the students with lending and collection knowledge in addition to global knowledge of developing countries. The payback of the loans will create a self-perpetuating program to be used by students in future years.