LIVE OAK, Texas (July 8, 2024) — Because of the guidance and direction of our award-winning RBFCU Financial Literacy Team, each of the 19 students who completed the 2024 RBFCU Youth Ambassadors Program will have a $750 scholarship to put toward their college education!

This year’s sessions were successful in attracting a diverse group of learners. These scholarship winners are from both suburban and inner-city public schools, charter schools, academies and private/parochial schools and homeschoolers (at least one participant is earning dual credit toward an out-of-state private university). The locations of these students include places where our members live in or near our service areas (Bastrop, Canyon Lake, Frisco, Laredo and Schertz) and our legacy home territory at Randolph AFB.

Our Financial Literacy Specialists Jennifer Crawford and Michelle Herrera were joined by several RBFCU employees to instruct the Youth Ambassadors. These presenters included: Terence Powell (saving and investing), Kevin Keegan (fraud awareness), John Ortiz (using credit wisely), Glenn Errhalt (professionalism in the workplace) and Mandy Peña (presentation skills), with Jennifer and Michelle handling topics like financial services, money management, insurance and student loans.

Some of our team leaders at RBFCU also spoke about their career paths, including Tamara El-Amin (Lending Compliance), Jennifer Echtle (Internal Audit), Johnny Heintz (IT Information Security), Hector Hurtado (Operations Compliance), Erick Martinez (Regulatory and BSA Compliance), Yvette Umphlett (Consumer Lending Underwriting), Gerardo Ventura (Business Solutions Commercial Lending) and Cheri Walston (Finance).

Because of the expertise available to the Youth Ambassadors, the group was able to have hands-on practice in a financial education knowledge challenge, budgeting simulation, savings goals and a fraud situation activity.

The Youth Ambassadors enjoyed meeting and networking with the current and former college interns during the week. They asked the interns about their college experiences as well as their current job duties with the organization.