Location to offer employment, internships to USC students
A true financial safe haven has been established in South Carolina, and not in the form of an ATM. The Carolina Collegiate Credit Union made itself a permanent home on the second floor of the Russell House on Wednesday afternoon. President and CEO of Carolina Collegiate Anne Shivers and Vice President Helen Powell introduced the credit union to the Gamecock community in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
"Our mission is to provide financial responsibility and financial education to all of our members, most importantly our students in college," Powell said. "So we've created this student-run financial service center for all the students at the university."
While having a credit union on campus will be more convenient for many students, Shivers stated that students will come first in all aspects of the credit union's operation, including providing internships and employment opportunities for students.
"These are a wonderful group of students at the university from all different curriculums. To me, it gives them good experience in real-world financial services and the whole leadership aspect," Powell said. "It helps to develop skills that other organizations will require in the future ... we really want to provide the opportunity to build a resume."
Some students, like fourth-year international business and marketing student Alysia Malpass, have already gotten jobs with Carolina Collegiate.
"It offers a lot of opportunities for leadership development. It develops problem-solving skills as well," Malpass said. "We don't really look to management to handle any of the issues that come along with running it."
The credit union's services extend far beyond solely providing internships and job opportunities for those employed. The credit union also aims to be an easily accessible resource for all USC students.
"We want to be very convenient with our financial services. You don't have to look beyond the university community for convenient financial service," Shivers said.
Almost all students should be able to access the features of Carolina Collegiate, as the credit union has extensive partnerships that extend to thousands of other federal credit unions nationwide.
"The nice thing is we also serve up to 1,700 other credit unions from this one office, so if you have a check from grandma coming for your birthday, you can come right here to cash it," Shivers said.
Carolina Collegiate is looking forward to becoming an integral part of USC students' lives with this new on-campus branch.
"This is our true, core student-run campus credit union," Powell said. "We're all very excited."
The credit union will be open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.