Virginia City teens tour credit union headquarters

Teenagers from Virginia City learned about financial services and prospective careers in that field during a tour Wednesday of Greater Nevada Credit Union offices in Carson City.

In the group from Comstock Youth Works of the Community Chest-backed community center in the Storey County town was Garrett Coyne, a young man curious at various tour stops about interest rates.

"I'd like to be a stock broker," he said when asked about his interest in savings rates, mortgage rates and other aspects of credit union services.

The group asked questions as they went from the headquarters branch at 451 Eagle Station Lane to an adjacent building handling related services for the multi-branch credit union in northwestern Nevada.

At the tour's conclusion, bank staff also provided a short seminar on how young people should handle their personal finances in relation to financial institutions.

The tour opened with Jeff Bravo, branch manager, and R. Kyle Rush, mortgage consultant, telling students the credit union can handle many of the same services for customers that banks provide.

"There aren't many credit unions that write home loans," said Rush, giving an example of one of the banking-type services Greater Nevada can do.

Upstairs in the information technology (IT) offices headed by Judy Jewkes, the teens were told about prospective employment opportunities in business that use computers.

Brenton Mills, IT tech specialist, told them the work was fun and the field is fertile for jobseekers with proper skills.

"You absolutely can't go wrong with computers," he said. "I think this and health care are about the only things that are guaranteed to be around."

The young people also learned in a couple of departments about money laundering and the ways financial institutions must monitor accounts to alert federal officials if drug or terrorists' money movement is suspected.

For instance, Greater Nevada compliance officer Chris Guerra told the tour group credit union or bank personnel ask pointed questions about finances for a reason.

"They aren't asking because they're nosy," he said, noting it is because the government requires such questions be answered.

Greater Nevada's Giovanis Montero, a community outreach assistant, and Christy White, a human resources specialist, conducted the tour with the aid of individual department personnel at each stop.