Credit Union Internships Are Shaping The Future Of The Industry

With the academic year over and summer underway, credit unions across the country are bringing in college students for summer internships intended to prepare them for the workforce and maybe even a career in credit unions.

InFirst Federal Credit Union ($192.0M, Alexandria, VA) has provided internship opportunities for more than a decade but has taken a more intentional approach this year.

“I’ve been here 16 years, and we’ve always had interns work with us during the summer, but we would just have them go to various departments to help out with projects,” says Tameka Murphy, InFirst’s chief people officer. “This year we have a formal program, which we’re excited about.”

The formalized program was the brainchild of president and CEO Mark Hudzik, who last year directed the human resources department to put together an internship strategy with clear objectives, roles, responsibilities, and more. Those documents also outline interns’ compensation, performance evaluation criteria, goals and deliverables, and more. The interns are working on a collaborative social media project presentation focused on attracting millennials and Gen Z, led by Cathy Johnson, executive administrative assistant. The interns will begin their project with a competitive audit, researching other organizations’ social sites. Their final results will be presented to the executive team and board of directors at the end of the summer.

The credit union begins recruiting roughly nine months before the internships begin, with organizers reaching candidates via online tools, connections with local universities, and college career fairs.

This year’s program kicked off in early June and will run through August, with seven interns focused on improving the credit union’s social media strategy. The internship project document notes that InFirst’s average member is 56 years old, and diversifying the membership is key to long-term sustainability.

As part of that work, the seven interns will conduct an in-depth audit of all InFirst social media profiles — including LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube — with an eye toward what works and what’s falling flat. From there, the team will conduct a social strategy audit, work with the marketing department to create new pages, launch a content calendar, build a library of stock photos, create and curate new content, and more.

“Credit unions as a whole have always struggled to bring in the next generation of members,” Murphy says. “That’s what pushed this strategic initiative.”

That’s not to say that previous internships weren’t successful, she adds, but those programs were generally focused on smaller tasks.

“We told them, ‘This is what we want you to do,’ but now we’re tapping into how we can be better,” she says. “What can you tell us that we need to do? Because we don’t know. They’re the ones who are constantly on social media, and they know what’s going to attract people to the credit union.”

The Future’s So Bright(Star)

Although InFirst will keep its interns focused on a specific project, many shops spread their interns among a variety of departments.

That’s the case at BrightStar Credit Union ($949.4M, Hollywood, FL), where this year 16 interns will work on projects in IT, marketing, HR, lending, and more. The credit union posts positions online several months in advance, says Wendy Lutheran, vice president of human resources, then conducts interviews and provides an onboarding and orientation process similar to new employees.

The credit union has welcomed back many repeat interns, and one HR intern is joining the credit union staff for the third straight year this summer. Additionally, the credit union offered one of last summer’s interns a full-time position in IT.

Like InFirst, BrightStar has also previously asked interns to focus on improving its social media standing, although that project was housed within a specific department.

“Last year, our marketing interns created several social media campaigns and postings,” Lutheran says. “This helped keep us current with the younger demographic, using means such as TikTok and Instagram.”

A Two-Tier Internship Program

College students are a solid source of summertime talent, but some credit unions look beyond that traditional intern pool. Hudson Valley Credit Union ($8.0, Poughkeepsie, NY) has offered internships to a small group of high school students since 2019 (not counting two years off during the pandemic).

The credit union pays both its high school and college interns. High schoolers make $16.50 per hour —  significantly above minimum wage — for the duration of the six-week program, during which they work 25 hours per week. Transportation scholarships are also available for those who don’t drive.

Each year, the credit union hosts 10 high school students — generally those going into sophomore and junior years — with a goal of recruiting at least half from Poughkeepsie High School. HVCU staff reviews all applications with no assistance from AI, and this year, nearly 100 students applied.

Interns visit branches, shadow tellers, work on marketing campaigns, and more, and at the end of the summer complete a presentation on their work for parents, staff, and more. The credit union’s goal is to create a pipeline from high school intern to college intern, and some former interns have asked questions about returning for another round.

Interest in HVCU’s college internships is even more robust, with 400 applications this year for nine students working in departments like risk, BI, wealth management, marketing, and more. Previous years have primarily relied on word of mouth to fuel the pipeline, but this year the credit union spread the word among all the colleges in its field of membership and on sites like LinkedIn and Indeed.

Interns work on projects specific to their departments, but the program has added components related to work readiness and mentorship.

“We want to give students an idea of what it’s like when they graduate,” says Rebecca Gerace, talent acquisition manager.

Like many other credit unions, HVCU also wants to ensure students understand the range of opportunities a credit union career can offer.

“Students don’t really know what credit unions are,” Gerace says. “They know what banks are, but a lot don’t understand that you can do marketing, you can do HR — you have all of these opportunities, and you don’t necessarily need to go across the state. We have big universities here and this is right in your back yard. If you’re going to stay for school, you can get some experience here at the credit union.”