TS Bank named GrowCB business member
January 25, 2022 | TS Bank
Council Bluffs, IA, January 25, 2022 - On Thursday, January 20, 2022, TS Bank was celebrated as a recent GrowCB business member, a youth-business partnership program of the Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce which provides work-based experiences directly to area students.
GrowCB is an ongoing program with a purpose to help young people appreciate the importance of quality education and how it relates to opportunities in the workforce. The program is a mutual commitment from the chamber, businesses, students, student program, and area schools, who will work together to provide career awareness, exploration, and experience opportunities.
Each partnership is unique in that there is not a set curriculum. If a business is partnering through an area school districts’ “work-based learning” or another student program they become a GrowCB Business Member.
Though recently recognized, TS Institute, the financial literacy arm of TS Bank has implemented several of these platforms since 2009 through in-school student banking experiences, career exploration courses, summer academies, entrepreneurship camps and Junior Achievement® curriculum in the Council Bluffs and southwest Iowa area.
Pictured above: Dave Wise, SVP of Business Banking with TS Bank, Drew Kamp, CEO of Council Bluffs Chamber of Commerce and Kyle Osborne, Director of Financial Literacy with TS Institute, the financial literacy arm of TS Bank.
The student banks are supplemented with intentionally designed classroom lessons that introduce students to economic concept of saving money at an early age. Each lesson that is deployed into the classroom by the TS Institute team members in the elementary, middle, and high school curriculum have an end goal of career and financial readiness. In addition, the banks demonstrates that saving money should be part of not only the student’s financial plan but also includes ways that the whole family, parents included, can move in a direction of financial health. There are four TS Bank student branches in Southwest Iowa with three in Council Bluffs and one in Treynor. The partner schools are Rue Elementary, Franklin Elementary and College View Elementary in Council Bluffs and Treynor Elementary in Treynor.
TS Bank has also partnered with Council Bluffs Community School District to launch a banking and finance Diploma Plus One Pathway career exploration program for high school students. Enrolled students receive high school credit as well as three industry-recognized credentials from the American Bankers Association (ABA).
The summer academies and entrepreneurship camps happen each summer and are designed to introduce students to local businesses and entrepreneurs. As students are exposed to business, finance and key community leaders, they discover how their talents can fit into a community like Council Bluffs. These camps and academies are typically week-long and facilitated with the local schools of Council Bluffs.
Lastly, Junior Achievement (JA) inspires youth to make smart academic and economic choices while learning about entrepreneurship, savings and their community. TS Bank’s goal with Junior Achievement is to send as many volunteers into the elementary schools to encourage collaborative learning and to expose students with some of the best business leaders Council Bluffs has to offer. This year JA will be implemented for the first time at College View Elementary and for the 10th year at Treynor Elementary. Over 50 percent of TS Bank’s annual giving is dedicated to financial literacy efforts.
“A special thank you to TS Bank for your involvement in our community and our youth program, GrowCB. Without this invest in our youth, we would not be able to grow our future talent pipeline and continue to grow the local workforce,” said Alicia Frieze, workforce development director.
Grow CB partners include Council Bluffs Chamber of Commerce, Council Bluffs Community School District, Lewis Central Community Schools, and Career EdVantage. In the first year of the program, according to the chamber website, over 450 students have been impacted and over 1,250 hours have been invested by local businesses.
To learn more about GrowCB, visit www.councilbluffsiowa.com/growcb.
Large group photo above: D'Lisa Ware, CBCSD; Traci Dresher, TS Institute; Dave Wise, TS Bank; Drew Kamp; CB Chamber of Commerce; Kyle Osborne, TS Institute; Kelsey Stupfell, TS Bank; Bailey McQueen; Career EdVantage.
About TS Bank: TS Bank’s mission is to Ignite Prosperity® in the communities it serves. Leading the resurgence of community banking, TS Bank reinvests 10 percent of their net income locally; hosting educational events and partners with local organizations and non-profits. TS Bank was chartered in 1923 and has $380 million in assets, along with the largest Iowa state-chartered C-Corp trust department west of Des Moines at nearly $218 million in assets named TS Prosperity Group. Locations include Treynor, Macedonia, Atlantic, Corning, Council Bluffs and Ames, Iowa. For more information, visit tsbank.com.