Does the thought of a teenager handling your banking transactions make you nervous? What if it were her first “real” job? Well, if it’s Jessica Braga on the other side of the Greenwood Credit Union counter, there’s no need to worry. The rising senior at West Warwick High School is part of the school’s Academy of Finance program, which helps students learn about and prepare for careers in financial services. Academy students have spent their summer vacation in paid internships at local businesses.
“The goals of the program are two-fold,” said Donna Clemence, West Warwick High School teacher and director of the four-year-old program. “The first is to expose the students to the business world, and the second is the practical application of skills, so that they will be able to apply what they’ve learned in class.”
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The six to eight week internships are the summer component to the program, which starts during the students’ (who are selected through an application process) junior year. Three class periods each day are devoted to Academy of Finance courses – for which the students earn college credit – during the students’ last two years of high school. The focus is on banking and financially related businesses, with course offerings in computer applications, accounting, and international finance.
What has the internship at Greenwood taught Braga?
“I always try to ask questions,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of talks with the girls who work here. I’ve learned that I’m going to have my good days and my bad days. I realize what I’m doing is important.”
Braga’s supervisor, branch operations manager Marianne Barao, sees Braga’s most crucial lesson as one in teamwork.
“She realizes it takes a team effort to work in an environment like this,” Barao said. “She sees the work flow in the banking industry that takes place all in one place. This is the only branch. It all happens right here, and she sees it all.”
Braga plans to continue working at Greenwood even after school starts.
Graduates of the Academy of Finance are prepared for entry-level careers in financial services, but students need not have financial services as an ultimate career goal to be successful in the program.
“Even if they don’t go into a career in finance, they have more confidence going into their chosen careers,” Clemence said.
Clemence said the West Warwick business community has been very supportive of the program since its inception four years ago. The Academy of Finance’s advisory board includes business people from Greenwood Credit Union, Fleet Bank, the Consumer Credit Counseling Service and Bryant College.
“We are very lucky,” Clemence said about all of the program’s participating businesses. “The program is growing with students each year, so I need more places every year.”
Several of the Academy students said their internships gave them the opportunity to see if they would be interested in working in a similar setting on a regular basis.
“It was fun,” said Mia LaPlante, who did her internship in the First Start Business program at the Secretary of State’s office. “I learned how the government actually deals with and handles things, and I’ve been able to see if I wanted to work with a division of government or not.”
Amanda Raiche worked in the business department of the West Warwick School Department. Her duties included performing a textbook inventory and creating spreadsheets using Excel and Access. Raiche knows she wants a career in business – either in management or marketing – but her internship solidified one thing in her mind:
“I definitely do not want to sit at a computer all day long,” she said. “That is not my cup of tea. I need to get out. Eight hours a day at a computer is not for me.”
Christopher Poulin’s internship at Capobianco Accounting provided a unique challenge: In the male-dominated world of accounting, he happened to be the only male in an office of eleven.
“It was a little awkward at first,” he said.
But not awkward enough, apparently, to derail his future plans for a career as a CPA.
“A lot of the accountants there were interns first,” Poulin said. “I enjoy working with figures, doing the math.”
Others found the internships an opportunity to learn important lessons and skills.
“I had to learn to work by myself because my boss wasn’t in some of the time,” said Danielle Poulan, who interned at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service, in the education department.
Many of Poulan’s duties centered on working with computer databases and running backup.
“I also learned how to ask for help, because I don’t normally do that,” she said.
Working in the credit department at NATCO Products afforded Patricia Rebello the opportunity to interact with customers while handling their accounts.
“I enjoyed it,” she said. “Everybody has their own responsibilities, and I liked that. The only thing I didn’t like was contacting the customers and telling them they had accounts that were past due. You don’t like telling them they’re late.”
The internships the students participated in are “unique in the fact that the businesses are paying them,” Clemence said. “The businesses have been very, very cooperative in finding meaningful jobs for them to do. I don’t think anybody did eight hours of filing, and as they became more experienced, they increased the students’ responsibility.”
Clemence said while she enjoys helping prepare her students for their future, she hates to see them go.
“They’re nice kids,” Clemence said. “When you have students such as these, after having them three periods a day for two years I don’t want them to leave!”
