Educators Credit Union celebrates 11 co-op students

On Thursday, May 24, Educators Credit Union celebrated a year of success with co-op students.

Educators’ co-ops are area high school students that are seeking real-world job experience. The 2017-18 class of co-ops were also the first group to work at the credit union’s Home Office. Traditionally, the co-ops work as tellers, serving members face-to-face. This group also worked in our Member Response Center, Accounting Department, and Interactive Teller Department.

This year’s students are Zach Bauer from Waukesha High School, Diana Casco from Racine Park High School, Nalah McWhorter from Racine Park High School, Keydi Osorio from Kenosha Bradford High School, Ryan Pearson from Elkhorn High School, Bryanna Prochnow from Racine Park High School, Jazmine Tidwell from Racine Park High School, De’Andra Tucker from Kenosha Bradford High School, Pazong Vang from Milwaukee Hmong American Peace Academy, Brittany Wit from South Milwaukee High School, and Elijah Xiong from Milwaukee Hmong American Peace Academy.

The co-op students earn a wage and credit for their experience. In order to take part in the program, they must be taking part in one of the co-op classes at area high schools. The students are also required to do some homework. An added benefit is that the co-ops had the opportunity to practice professional communication using email, work on their soft-skills, shadow additional departments to learn their responsibilities, and complete a practice job interview.

Next year, Educators plans to hire 14 co-op students and introduce even more departments to the program.

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Meet Kyle!

Kyle is an ITM Agent at our Sturtevant branch.

Check out his Meet Video to get to know him better.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel.

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Educators Awards 35 Scholarships to Local High School Seniors

Educators Credit Union celebrated success and excellence at its 2018 scholarship recipient dinners in Janesville and Milwaukee.

Educators awarded our 2018 scholarship to 35 graduating seniors that attend schools throughout our 11-county service area. This is the largest group of scholarship winners in the history of this program. Each student will receive $2,000 to help pay for college.

“My mom and I are both going to be paying for college, so this will help both of us,” said Ben Hufendick, a scholarship winner from St. Joseph Catholic Academy in Kenosha. “She was in the room with me when I got the letter and she was probably happier than I was.”

In order to be awarded a scholarship, the students had to demonstrate one or more of Educators’ core values, attend a high school in our service area, be eligible to graduate at the end of the 2017-18 school year, have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 by the end of the first semester, be accepted by an accredited college or technical school, and be the primary owner of an Educators Credit Union account.

“This is an amazing group of students,” said Educators’ Director of Community Engagement Victor Frasher. “Every year, we get hundreds of submissions from truly incredible people. It was hard for our Scholarship Committee to make a final selection, but we ended with 35 exceptional students who we believe are going on to do big things.”

These students certainly have big ambitions. At the ceremony, many announced their plans for the future. Some wanted to be biomedical engineers, and others wanted to be politicians. One student is going to school to become an astronaut, while another is going to Harvard in the hopes of becoming a neurologist.

“This past summer, I studied at the Harvard Center for Brain Science,” said Sophia Sun from Brookfield Central High School as she explained her future ambitions. “I’m looking forward to continuing my research in this lab.”

It wasn’t hard to tell that the students were ready to head off to college and start the next step in working toward their dreams.

“This is the first time I’ll ever go to school by myself,” said Nancy Suarez from Parker High School. “It’s a chance to get to know myself and to see what I can do on my own.”

2018 Scholarship winners from southeastern Wisconsin

2018 Scholarship winners from Rock County

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Calling All High School Graduates

Congratulations to all the graduating high school seniors! You made it! Although it’s quite a relief to finally be done with high school, many of you only have a few months before heading off to college in the fall.

We have put together some tips to help you plan for your next adventure.

• Build Relationships Right Away:
  • If you have been assigned a random roommate, reach out to them! Introduce yourself and get to know them. Make sure to ask them about their preferences, study habits, sleep schedule and even what they have already purchased for the room, so you know what to buy. It helps to establish this rapport right away so that your year will go smoothly.
  • It also helps to get in contact with a current student. The girl leading my freshmen orientation took me under her wing and gave me advice about so many things I wasn’t even thinking about. These students already know where to find the best deals on food, the best activities, where you can have fun, and so much more. It helps to get the inside scoop from a student who has been at your university.

• Look Into Your Major’s Requirements:
  • If you already know what degree you want to pursue, it’s a smart idea to look into class requirements for your major and/or minor. If you don’t know what you want to study, get your hands on the undergraduate catalog to browse the options. Doing this will help you eliminate options you don’t want to pursue or maybe even spark a new interest.

• Utilize All the Student Discounts Possible:
  • Trust me, there’s more than you think. College is expensive, but finding those discounts can save you on everyday purchases. Do some research about the city and campus, or visit our College Students Only board (LINK) on the Educators Pinterest page to find some great opportunities to save money.

• Tackle Your Student Loans:
  • It’s crucial to make sure that you are looking for the best way to pay for college. Do your research, ask the advice of others who you trust and make the decision that is best for you as an individual.
  • If you need to take out a student loan, start applying as soon as possible. This is the most likely way to ensure you have the money you need for the semester. Don’t forget, you need to apply for student loans each semester before the semester starts, it’s not something that magically appears at school for you.
  • Did you know that Educators’ can help you pay for college? It’s hard to bridge the gap between scholarships, grants and federal loans and the actual cost of attending college. That’s why we teamed up with LendKey to make paying for college easy and repayment as painless as possible.

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Meet India!

India is an ITM Agent at our Sturtevant branch.

Check out her Meet Video to get to know her better.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel.

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Teacher Appreciation Week – Mr. Alex Williams

Our final interview for teacher appreciation week is with Alex Williams. Alex works in Milwaukee at the Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education. He is an AmeriCorps Member for City Year, a program that hires tutors and mentors for students of Milwaukee Public Schools. These tutors create relationships with the students and provide extra resources to help them with their educational career.

Alex went to Brown Deer High School in Milwaukee and then continued on to Ball State University in Indiana for his first year, where he was majoring in Telecommunications. He realized quickly that wasn’t his passion. He then transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he started narrowing down what he wanted to do. He decided to major in History but has decided to go back to get his teaching certification upon realizing that is his passion.

While he was in an education class, a City Year recruiter came in and explained what they were all about. He had done some tutoring in the past and thought this would be an excellent opportunity to support local students. He loved that City Year offered the chance to be in a school, all day, working with students and teachers. City Year played a prominent role in cementing his desire to teach and be involved with educational policy. He is extremely passionate about educational laws and making sure that every student has an equal opportunity to receive a substantial education.

“If you’re passionate about something, you are going to put more energy into it,” Williams said.

Alex enjoys designing lesson plans for his 7th- and 8th-grade students that challenge them to think about their life.

“I love designing lesson plans that are culturally relevant and peak my student’s interests,” said Williams.

Williams reaches out to his students to learn about their interests asks so that he can develop lessons that keep the students engaged. He believes this makes tutoring go smoothly, and loves to see where their minds go when they’re asking questions and remaining engaged.

“I love the ‘ah ha’ moments. Or when they’re really proud to show you the improvements they’ve made.”

The school just went through their testing, and he was so thrilled about the progress his students made but even prouder to see how enthusiastic they were when they reached their goals.

At the beginning of the year, Williams encountered his biggest challenge: building a rapport with his students. It was difficult for him at first because the students didn’t know him and he didn’t know the students. He had to dive in and start understanding his students and how they learned.

“We were all feeling each other out, and I was trying to learn everyone’s learning styles,” Williams said, recalling the start of the year. “I was trying to figure out who these students couldn’t work with, or who might be more of a challenge to work with.”

Although he loves designing lessons plans, it was a challenge at the beginning because he had to create lesson plans that benefit several different students at one time.

“It was hard because they all have very different personalities, which can be difficult, especially with the bigger personalities with lots of energy. But even that got easier as we became more comfortable with each other.”

When asked about a teacher or professor who inspired him, his former History teacher and football coach immediately came to mind. He was a significant influence on Alex and part of the reason he wanted to go into teaching. He loved that he always checked on his students.

“It made me realize that teachers weren’t just people handing out grades but they can be personable mentors. They are people too!”

Williams believes his greatest success in tutoring has been how students have normalized achievement. He loves that he plays a part in instilling a higher work ethic into their development.

“I have students ask for additional work and assignments and even for books to read over the summer. Because of the relationships I have developed, they trust me, and my tutoring is so much more effective”.

Educators Credit Union encourages you to reach out to your teachers and thank them for all that they do. If you are looking for a creative way to show your teachers appreciation, head over to the Educators’ Pinterest page and check out the teacher appreciation board.

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Teacher Appreciation Week – Ms. Wemmert

Educators Credit Union values teachers. To honor teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week, we interviewed teachers that are Educators members to get to know them a little bit better. Today we have Ms. Melissa Wemmert!

Ms. Wemmert went to Walden High School and was one of the first students to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside’s new Education program. She graduated with a Bachelors in Geography, a minor in History and, of course, her teaching license. Now, she teaches 10th grade World History, World Geography as an elective for Juniors and Seniors and 12th-grade Sociology at Case High School in Racine. She loves teaching different grade levels because it lets her observe how much they grow over their high school careers.

When asking Ms. Wemmert’s favorite part of teaching, she said, “Having a chance to build relationships with both my students and my colleagues.”

She’s excited to see how her students progress and loves being able to teach them something that might help them throughout college or get them their dream job. Though, teaching does come with its challenges.

“It’s definitely difficult to balance your personal life and your work life,” said Ms. Wemmert. “It’s hard to make sure that you’re doing enough for yourself and for your students because it can’t be all work, all the time.”

Now that she’s in the final stretch of her first full year teaching, she has finally learned how to balance the business that is being a teacher.

Ms. Wemmert didn’t even have to take a second to think about the teachers who inspired to enter the education field.

“Dr. Nancy Whitaker from Parkside really inspired me and gave me a lot of really good feedback to help me push myself further than I thought I could go, especially starting off as a new teacher.”

Ms. Wemmert hopes to make that impact on her students and already has received some appreciation for her work in the classroom. Even when she was substituting before her full-time teaching position, she would receive letters from her students thanking her for helping them through their classes.

“Even those small things are amazing. Knowing you impacted someone is pretty cool. I would say that that makes me feel very successful.”

Ms. Wemmert is also a big fan of Educators Credit Union.

“Oh, the convenience!”, says Ms. Wemmert when asked what she loves about being an Educators member. “It’s so nice having everything in one place!”

Educators Credit Union encourages you to reach out to your teachers and thank them for all that they do. If you are looking for a creative way to show your teachers appreciation, head over to the Educators’ Pinterest page and check out the teacher appreciation board.

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Teacher Appreciation Week – Mr. Kayser

Educators Credit Union values teachers year-round, but we are putting some local teachers under the spotlight during Teacher Appreciation Week. Today we are celebrating Alexander Kayser, a teacher at SC Johnson Elementary School.

Mr. Kayser grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin and went to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for his degree in Music Education. He then completed his student teaching in West Allis and Racine. Now he’s been teaching music for six years to students in 4K all the way to 5th graders.

It seems to be a good fit, as Mr. Kayser is passionate about introducing students to the world of music.

“I love being able to make music and be creative with my students every day and provide them with a positive and safe outlet to express their emotions, talents, and interests,” Mr. Kayser said. “It’s just so much fun!”

When asking Mr. Kayser what the most challenging part of teaching is for him, he said that it’s trying to make an impact on every student that walks through the door.

“It’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it!” said Mr. Kayser.

It’s especially worthwhile when he gets to watch the students smile and have fun while performing.

“Whether they are singing for their families at our annual holiday concert, acting in our 5th-grade musical production, or rocking on the instruments in the classroom, it’s incredibly rewarding to see their hard work pay off as they share their musical talents.”

Mr. Kayser has quite the list of “thank yous” when it comes to recognizing the people who gave him his passion for teaching.

“Honestly, if I named all of the teachers that inspired me, it would be pages long. I’ve been lucky to have a lot of inspirational and supportive teachers throughout my entire life, which is exactly why I wanted to become a teacher.”

Mr. Kayser also appreciates his local credit union. He said every trip to Educators is a positive one.

“The staff is always super friendly and helpful,” Mr. Kayser said. “Also, the Educators app makes managing my finances super easy amidst my busy schedule!”

Educators Credit Union encourages you to reach out to your teachers and thank them for all that they do. If you are looking for a creative way to show your teachers appreciation, head over to the Educators’ Pinterest page and check out the teacher appreciation board.

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Teacher Appreciation Week – Ms. Dryer

Today we are celebrating Educators member and teacher, Ms. Lisa Dryer. Ms. Dryer is a veteran teacher of 18 years at Christian Life High School in Kenosha. I actually had the pleasure of being a student in Ms. Dryer’s Biology class my freshmen year at CLS!

Ms. Dryer began with receiving her degree in Sports Medicine and Athletic Training from Trinity International University. Little did she know that teaching would become her passion! During her senior year, she realized that she wanted to teach while interning at Mundelein High School in Illinois. Ms. Dryer said she loved teaching the teenagers in her training room about different exercises but couldn’t handle the stress during emergency situations. Although she knew she wanted to become a teacher, she wasn’t able to switch her degree so late into her senior year. Luckily, “back in the day,” you didn’t have to have a degree in teaching to become a teacher, so she worked in a few different high schools in New Hampshire before starting at CLS. Now she’s almost on her second decade of teaching Anatomy, Physiology, Food Science, Biology and Honors Biology to high school students.

Even after 18 years, Ms. Dryer still has challenges to overcome in the classroom.

“These days, I think it’s keeping kids engaged,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like I literally have to do a song or dance every day to keep their focus and keep them interested.”

Ms. Dryer isn’t afraid to branch out with new teaching techniques or learning different ways to keep their attention, but it definitely keeps her on her toes.

“You have to learn to enjoy coming up with new ideas. You can’t keep doing the same thing every time.”

The good always outweighs the bad, though. Her favorite part of teaching is the relationships she develops with “these mini adults.”

“Okay, okay they aren’t really mini but they are semi-adults, and you can have great conversations with them and get to know them.”

She’s passionate about developing working relationships with the students because it leads to watching them progress and become nurses, doctors or medical professionals.

“It’s nice to know that I may have had a little something to do with that. Obviously, they do all the work, but I had a little part in that because I helped guide them there!”

Her most celebrated success in teaching can’t be narrowed down to one instance. It encompasses the years of watching the students she taught enter the professional world of medicine. To her, that’s a success because they survived high school, did well in college and become a productive citizen. But there are little moments she enjoys too.

“I love when my students enjoy science,” Ms. Dryer said. “When kids leave my classroom and go ‘Wow! That went by so fast!’, that’s awesome.”

When asking about Ms. Dryer’s favorite part about being an Educators Credit Union member, she said, “Every time I have encountered fraud, they have been so helpful.” She said she loved how fast, smooth and professionally everything was taken care of to help resolve the problem.

Educators Credit Union encourages you to reach out to your teachers and thank them for all that they do. If you are looking for a creative way to show your teachers appreciation, head over to the Educators’ Pinterest page and check out the teacher appreciation board.

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Teacher Appreciation Week – Ms. Mazzolini

Educators Credit Union values teachers. In order to honor teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week, we interviewed teachers from our area to get to know them a little bit better. On deck today is Niki Mazzolini, who is in her first full year of teaching at Indian Trail High School and Academy.

Ms. Mazzolini got her degree in English with a secondary education license from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. She is certified to teach grades 6-12 in English. She started student teaching at Indiana Trail High School and Academy and is now running her very own classroom. ITHSA is broken up into comprehensive and academy students, where Ms. Mazzolini is currently teaching a World Literature class for the Sophomore academy students and Survey of Literature for Freshmen.

When asked if she enjoys teaching the younger high school students she said, “Yeah! I think it’s fun. They are at a fun age. When the Freshmen come in, they are seeing what it’s all about and trying to find to find themselves. It’s cool with the Freshmen because you can still be goofy with them and have a lot of fun in the classroom.”

Ms. Mazzolini loves that teaching is different every day. She enjoys the flexibility of being able to apply different learning techniques to her lessons. She loves that her students are so all so different and come from different backgrounds because it brings so much engagement and diversity in the classroom. Even though she teaches the same lessons throughout the day, every class is different because the students all learn in unique ways.

“As a first year teacher, my biggest challenge is time management,” says Ms. Mazzolini when asked what challenges she faces in her job. “I’m planning all my lessons, meeting with students, meeting with parents, meeting with staff, constantly grading and I’m the sophomore class advisor, so it’s difficult to find a balance between my personal time and teaching time.”

She said that now she is in the fourth quarter, she has finally found a balance between her school life and her personal life.

Ms. Mazzolini’s face lit up when she asked who inspired her to become a teacher.

“I have two actually!” she said. “Annie Grugel and Suzanne Swiderski are both from the education program at UW-Parkside. I think I connected with both of them so well because they really dove into my personal experience at UW-Parkside.”

Ms. Mazzolini says both were so caring and really gave her the tools to become a successful teacher. Even now, they still check in with her to see how she’s doing.

Although it’s Ms. Mazzolini’s first full year of teaching, she has already had a lot of success in her career. “It’s really hard to try and fit each lesson to every individual student since everyone learns differently. But having worked through that, I have students that will come up to me and thank me for caring about them and working with them to be successful students. It’s really rewarding to hear them say. ‘Oh! I get it now!’”

Educators Credit Union encourages you to reach out to your teachers and thank them for all that they do. If you are looking for a creative way to show your teachers appreciation, head over to the Educators Pinterest page and check out the teacher appreciation board.

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Something New at Newman

Have you walked into Educators’ Newman branch lately? Then you have definitely noticed a change. There’s new carpet, new colors, new furniture and more is on the way!

It’s been a long time since Newman had seen a touch-up, but this renovation is about more than just updating the layout. Here are some of the benefits you’ll see at Newman now and in the future:

• A closer greeter station for quicker solutions. Previously, the greeter station was a bit of a walk from the entryway, making it hard to know where to go to get service. Now, our friendly greeters are placed at the door to welcome you and help guide you to the services you’re looking for. This will also save you time you would otherwise spend waiting in line.
• No more writing stations for better service. In the days of writing your transactions down on a piece of paper, tellers were taking an order rather than providing a service. This opens the door to having a conversation with your teller about what you are trying to get out of your transaction and can help give you more personalized service.
• More technology for your convenience. When the remodel is complete, members will have access to a full tech bar to use our mobile and online services. This is great for users who don’t have access at home or might need a little help using these digital tools.

We hope you enjoy the new look and improved flow at Newman. This is part of a process to help make our branches an even better resource for the needs of our members. Of course, it’s changing visually, but it’s still the same great branch, the same caring people and that familiar first-class service. Watch for more changes like this at our other Educators branches.

What has been your favorite part of the update? What are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!

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Educators Credit Union Sponsors Customized Harley for the UWM Scholarship Fund

Educators Credit Union is teaming up with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Athletics Department to fund higher education. The Athletics Department is raffling off a 2011 decommissioned Harley-Davidson police cruiser at the Panthers baseball game against Wright State on May 12. The bike was donated by the House of Harley-Davidson, with about 31,000 miles on it.

The creativity doesn’t stop there. The UWM Athletics Department joined with the Peck School to generate scholarship funds for UWM. The Peck School held an arts call open to undergraduate and graduate Art and Design students to design the motorcycle. The theme for the design was service and community in Milwaukee.

Graduate student Amber Van Galder was chosen by the judges to customize the motorcycle. The motorcycle will be on display all throughout Milwaukee until the big game. It will be at the House of Harley-Davidson, our Educators Prospect branch, at Peck’s Kenilworth East Gallery, until finally ending at Miller Park for the game.

The public can buy tickets for the raffle ahead of the Panther Tailgate at Miller Park on May 12. You do not have to be present to win. Tickets are priced at: $25 for one, $50 for three and $100 for eight. They will accept cash, check or credit card. Checks should be made out to the UWM Foundation. If you would like to purchase tickets, you can call the UWM Athletics ticket office at 414.229.5886 or stop by the House of Harley’s Milwaukee location at 6221 W. Layton Avenue.

Before and after of the bike:

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Gain more on your savings with Educators Credit Union!

Starting today, you can earn more on your savings with the Educators 15-month Share Certificate Special.

Here’s how it works:

• Open the special share with a $500 minimum deposit.
• Save over 15-months at a 1.75% APY*.
• Points for Perks cannot be used to increase the rate of this special share.

Visit any Educators branch or call 262.886.5900 to open this special share today!

This special share cannot be combined with other offers.
Penalties and other restrictions may apply for early withdrawal.
When your certificate matures, it will be deposited into your Prime Share savings. This special share certificate cannot be renewed.
*APY = Annual Percentage Yield

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May Member Focus

This month’s Member Focus is here! In May, we’re talking about 2018 Shred Days, estate planning and Reality Check Days. Read it here.

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