Linda Settler helps elementary school students who need a little extra help with basic skills two hours each week.

Fox Point Universal Banker Linda Settler, who spent years as a volunteer for area schools before joining North Shore Bank in November 2010, knows what kind of impact she is making.

“Last year at Thurston Woods school, I encountered a beautiful little girl who was convinced she was stupid and would tell me so. Whenever we met, she would use every excuse possible to avoid engaging in the lesson,” Linda recalls.

Out of frustration and concern, Linda spoke with the girl’s teacher. “The liaison for the volunteer program contacted me a few weeks later to let me know that the little girl was tested for learning disabilities, and she was in fact suffering from one.”

“I truly believe that if I had not come into this child’s life, she would have been labeled a troublemaker and never would have received the help she so desperately needed,” Linda says.

Volunteer experience translates to hiring potential
This was just one incident in Linda’s vast record of volunteer experience. She was a stay-at-home mom for 22 years and spent 14 of them as a volunteer in the Fox Point-Bayside School District. “My daughters attended elementary and middle school there. I loved helping out in the classroom, and I was especially grateful for the opportunity to get to know the children.”

Lacking workplace experience for her résumé, Linda relied heavily on her volunteer roles to help land a job when she decided it was time to get back into the workforce. When Fox Point Branch Manager Carol Bergen reviewed Linda’s credentials, she considered her not only a good candidate for a position at North Shore Bank, but also envisioned the role Linda could play in the bank’s partnership with Maple Dale-Indian Hill School District, another Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Top Workplace award winner.

Linda also had volunteered with Interfaith Milwaukee, which placed her in Milwaukee Public Schools helping kids with reading, writing and phonics. Now she spends two hours each week helping students close to her branch learn skills that will serve them throughout life.

Budget cuts mean larger classes, stressed teachers
Linda has seen firsthand the effect budget cuts have had in the classroom. “Class sizes have increased, and capable students who struggle too often are overlooked by a teacher overwhelmed with a large class. If those students don’t receive extra help, it’s possible that a small learning issue could snowball into a large one and become a stumbling block that will affect them throughout their educational years,” she says.

“The extra set of eyes and ears I provide in the classroom allows me to identify students needing extra help and assist them one-on-one while the teacher continues with the day’s lesson plan,” she says.

“It’s good for youngsters to interact with adults other than their teachers and parents who can be role models for them,” Linda says. She works 30 hours a week at Fox Point, which means she can get in her two hours of tutoring before she arrives at the branch.

“My students see me dressed in professional attire and know I head to work at North Shore after our session. A few of them have Seymour Savings accounts, so I see them when they visit the branch on Saturdays with their parents.”

The branch recently invited a Girl Scout troop from Indian Hill School to use the lobby as a warm place to sell their excess Girl Scout Cookies, another example of the win-win that results from the bank/school community outreach.

Everyone benefits, but the biggest winners of all, of course, are the students who get help, enabling them to master basic skills, feel good about themselves and keep up with their classmates.