United Bank of Iowa

This spring, Pat Bielenberg and Andrea Ulrich from our Ida Grove office volunteered to visit 2nd grade classrooms and present the Junior Achievement lessons. Read more about their experience below.

"JA was a user-friendly, fun experience for Andrea and I to bring to the second grade classes at BCIG Elementary School. Our 5 week program focused on Our Community, more specifically, careers, product production, innovation, earning, taxes, government, money, business and decision making. It was especially rewarding when you could tell the students were understanding the concepts that you were teaching and making connections with their own lives and the community they lived in. The teachers enjoyed the JA activities as they tied into their curriculum driving home some of the same concepts they were teaching and taking it a little further."

It was great to represent UBI and be able to talk about our jobs at the bank and the things we do for the community. The students remember us and they may say something if we see them in public, we are then able to talk to the adult and let them know how much fun we had with their child. I actually had one of the students in my class see me at the bowling alley and had me meet their parents, and Andrea had a similar experience at the grocery store.

When we finished the program the teachers said they would love to have us back next year. Andrea and I feel it would be well worth it for the bank to continue participating in this program and being represented in this manner. The children are our future!