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According to Jim Lowe, the director of marketing for EECU, this is the 17th branch for the local credit union and the first with student employees. An experienced branch manager and select EECU employees oversee the students and provide training.

The Clovis West branch allows students in Clovis Unified School District’s new Career Technical Education (CTE) banking and finance pathway to gain hands-on experience working in a bank. More than 20 students are enrolled in the pathway, which includes traditional English and mathematics courses applied to the field of banking and finance as well as the real world banking component in collaboration with Educational Employees Credit Union.

Clovis West is the first high school campus in the Central Valley to have a full-service credit union on campus that is partially run by students. Fresno Unified’s McLane High School has a student-run branch of Union Bank, but it only offers select banking services to students, faculty and administrative staff, whereas the Clovis West Educational Employees Credit Union provides the same services as any other EECU to all its members.

The ribbon cutting begins at 1 p.m. at Clovis West High School, located at 1070 Teague Ave. in Fresno.