Shorewood Branch Manager Shannon Weber (back, right) with the Girl Scout troop.

The Shorewood branch recently welcomed Girl Scout Troop #1181 to experience what it is like to be a bank employee for the afternoon.

Each Girl Scout was welcomed with a name badge and put to work right away. The girls learned about different aspects of the bank and each person’s areas of responsibility while focusing on saving for the future.

The Girl Scouts started their visit with Associate Banker Karyn Baumann, who allowed the girls to help run coin through the coin machine. After this was completed, Karyn explained that if the girls worked to save money in their piggy banks and bring their banks in, we can run the money through the coin machines and deposit those funds in a savings account where they can watch their money grow.

Micki Usama, personal banker at the Shorewood branch, with members of the Girl Scout troop.

Once done on the teller line, the girls had a turn in the banker’s office with Personal Banker Micki Usama. Micki explained debit cards and went over the benefits of Greenlight with the girls. One of the girls has her own Greenlight debit card, so was able to share stories of how easy it is for her to save, use, and watch her funds grow.

Once done with Micki, the girls went to Branch Manager Shannon Weber’s office for their job interview. How can we make them employees if they have not yet had an interview? Here I asked them questions regarding saving for their future as well as fun questions to learn more about them. A few examples of interview questions: Tell me about a time you really wanted to buy something versus you really needed to buy something? If you could have any job when you grow up, what would you want to do and why?

After their interviews, we went upstairs for a meeting. When the girls got to the conference area, they found a North Shore Bank bag for each of them along with trinkets they could take home. There was also an ice cream party waiting for them as well. While we enjoyed our ice cream we took time to ask questions about what we had learned and talked about our experience in the bank. The girls had such a fun time touring the branch and learning, and we had a fun time hosting them! ~ Shannon Weber