State Nebraska Bank & Trust in Wayne, Neb., recently showed local high school students the ins and outs of community banking. The $240 million-asset community bank hosted four students from Wayne High School for the school’s Junior Job Shadow Day.
Wayne High School’s guidance counselors have organized the program annually for five years. Students shadow the bank employees for half a day during either the morning or afternoon session, and the community bank rotates the students through each department. Students were able to see what careers are available in banking and how they could align with their different interests.
“We had some [students] that were interested in information technology and programming that came and talked to our IT person,” said Kirby Hall, chief financial officer and vice president for State Nebraska Bank & Trust. “Some people are interested in either finance or lending or any part of banking.”
The community bank sometimes hires students from Wayne State, the local university, as part-time tellers. And if Wayne High students attend Wayne State College, they could potentially work for the bank soon.
According to Hall, “Our hope is that by meeting with us and talking to the students and telling them kind of the background behind what each of our departments does, they might decide that something looks very interesting.”