From Student Member to Student Leader

As Senior Director of the Graduation Plus program through Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, I mentor young people down the path of graduating from high school, planning for college and navigating post-secondary life successfully. We serve low-income, first-generation college students. We surpassed 600 graduates and will celebrate our tenth anniversary of College Signing Day in 2023 (the first in Milwaukee to host this type of event). Students’ average GPA for both high school and college is always above a 3.0 and 95% go to college debt-free or with manageable student loan debt.

The work we do in Graduation Plus is great work, but it's expensive work, and to have the financial support of the UW Credit Union is invaluable. To be able to support more kids in our program, to provide amazing experiences and opportunities -- you can't put a price on that, on the effectiveness of what happens when students participate in the work that we do.

The financial literacy programming provided by UW Credit Union exposes our students to things college students should know, like avoiding credit card debt. Having credit union staff show up at our college signing days and graduations, being mentioned in the Annual Report and having our students win their scholarship -- all of that has been really, really impactful for the work and the service we do here at BGCGM.

I discovered UW Credit Union as a student at UW-Whitewater. I was still banking in Milwaukee, but I needed to cash a check and buy some things that couldn’t wait. Someone told me the credit union was in the student union and they let you open an account for five bucks. It was convenient, easy and accessible.

As you grow in your finances and your career, you start getting more perks. Free cashier checks. Free checking account. Credit cards with rewards. My favorite thing is the branded debit cards. I have the Warhawks card. It’s a full circle moment. This is where it started. Now it's in my pocket.

I really lean into the convenience of their online banking -- checking my bank account every day, doing mobile deposits, transferring money to Mom, paying bills. I can literally bank from my phone.

They were also there for me with my first debt consolidation loan. I had accumulated some credit card debt because I was not wise with my finances at the time. I haven’t been in credit card debt since.

UW Credit Union has given me great rates through the years and great protections. They don’t focus on teaching the customer a lesson for mismanaging their finances, but how can we help this customer better understand how we can help them in the future.

My financial freedom came thanks to the UW Credit Union. I thought it was just going to be a college thing, but I stuck with it and became a credit union advocate.

Because of our strong financial foundation, UW Credit Union can support organizations like Graduation Plus that align with our social mission of improving the financial well-being of people. Since 1931, UW Credit Union has been a trusted institution committed to serving members and the communities where they live.