School’s Out For Summer, But Financial Education Continues

When Abound Credit Union ($2.4B, Radcliff, KY) opened its first branch in Warren County, Kentucky, in 2017, leadership says working alongside Western Kentucky University (WKU) was an obvious fit.

“We hire a lot of WKU grads,” says Ray Springsteen, CEO at Abound. “We’ve had interns from WKU, board members with degrees from there. There’s a deep connection.”

When Springsteen learned the university introduced a personal finance summer camp for high schoolers in 2020, he reached out about a partnership.

“We’ve built financial education into our overall strategy, supporting schools, colleges, the military, and other groups across Central Kentucky,” the CEO says. “We have about 100 team members directly involved in delivering financial education, and we reached over 20,000 individuals last year. This work is part of our culture and brand.”

The credit union came onboard to assist with the camp’s second year in 2021, eventually becoming a headlining sponsor.

Students will leave camp having learned basic personal finance principles needed for success in college and beyond. It also offers an understanding of the personal financial planning career field.

Students compete in a team-based, financial planning case study. This case study is designed to immerse students in the various aspects of personal finance.

Abound Credit Union employees volunteer their time to make financial education engaging and fun through team games and evening activities during camp week.

WKU faculty and Abound Credit Union staff work side-by-side to cover topics such as purchasing a vehicle, budgeting, and how credit works.

The camp intentionally recruits students from rural and underserved communities, helping bridge financial literacy gaps where resources are often scarce.

Financial Expectations

This year, approximately 45 high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors will arrive at the WKU campus in mid-June for five days and four nights. They’ll stay in the dorms, eat at the cafeteria, and generally gain a taste of the college experience.

Of course, providing a college experience comes with a college-sized price tag. Covering the costs of meals, living accommodations, and access to other facilities and activities quickly adds up.

“When we came on as a financial partner, it was with the intention to help subsidized some of those costs,” Springsteen says.

Accessibility and inclusion are key components of Abound’s mission, and its involvement with the summer camp has helped knock down the price of student participation from $900 to $300 or $400. But the credit union’s partnership extends far beyond the financial. Every year, multiple members of its staff participate directly.

“One of them, Abigail Fowler, was our first intern from WKU,” Springsteen says. “Today, she serves as manager of data analytics and has played a key role in building connections on campus.”

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The CEO himself speaks to student-campers and parents every year. Other executives lend their time to both shape the curriculum and teach the material. This includes Jake Darabos, Abound’s chief financial and administrative officer.

“For the past few years, I’ve talked to students about basic savings, lending, and budgeting,” he says. “Then our chief lending officer does a deeper dive into what we look at when you want to buy a car or a house and how to start young to build up credit and prepare for that.”

It’s not all lectures, though. The camp’s “Abound Day” always concludes with activities and games.

Outreach, Growth, And Employee Engagement

Abound measures its camp sponsorship success in terms of participation growth and geographic reach, especially in rural or underserved areas.

“There’s a lot of rural areas throughout central Kentucky that might not have the access or the knowledge of these types of programs,” Darabos says. “So, that was a unique fit for us because we operate a lot of branches in the more rural areas of central Kentucky.”

What started as just 15 students five years ago has tripled, thanks in part to the credit union’s year-round outreach to schools across its service area.

In addition to strengthening community ties throughout the region, WKU’s summer camp has been a huge boost for employee engagement at Abound.

“We never lack for team member volunteers when we have an event at WKU,” Darabos says. “From an anecdotal standpoint, when we started participating with WKU there was so much excitement among our team members because even if some aren’t alumni, their kids or other family members have gone there.”

The 2025 camp concludes on Thursday, June 19. Springsteen hints that an announcement regarding the program is in the pipeline for September.

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