Education Credit Union announces opening of new Buff $mart location

Brianna Maestas, Amarillo Globe-News
·2 min read

West Texas A&M University and Education Credit Union on Wednesday announced their partnership for a student-led branch in Canyon.

“When you're investing resources into the community, if you equip people to live a safer, healthier financial life, you don’t just make them better, you make the community better,” said Eric Jenkins, president and CEO of Education Credit Union.

Eric Jenkins, President and CEO of Education Credit Union, and Dr. Walter Wendler, President of West Texas A&M University talk about the new Buff Smart program to teach financial responsibilty to students during a press conference at West Texas A&M Wednesday.
Eric Jenkins, President and CEO of Education Credit Union, and Dr. Walter Wendler, President of West Texas A&M University talk about the new Buff Smart program to teach financial responsibilty to students during a press conference at West Texas A&M Wednesday.

ECU plans to convert its existing branch, located at 2100 Fourth Ave. in Canyon, into the new student-led Buff $mart Branch. The new student-led location will be created after construction is completed for the new ECU Branch located at 1900 Farm-to-Market Road 2590 in Canyon.

The new Buff $mart Branch will provide the same financial services to ECU members that all branches offer, but will be student led, outside of a few management-level ECU staffers.

“For existing and incoming students, I definitely think this is an opportunity. They can have internship opportunities, experimental learning opportunities, or just go in and learn about finances and how to manage it,” said Madeline Kleinschmidt, ECU Buff $mart peer financial coach.

Eric Jenkins, President and CEO of Education Credit Union, announces a new branch to be built in Canyon Texas and the old branch converted to a WT student operated branch during a press conference at West Texas A&M Wednesday.
Eric Jenkins, President and CEO of Education Credit Union, announces a new branch to be built in Canyon Texas and the old branch converted to a WT student operated branch during a press conference at West Texas A&M Wednesday.

WT President Walter Wendler and Jenkins both spoke about the goal of helping to provide the community and students with more financial knowledge and help reduce the debt of individuals attending the university.

“I think what's so important with the ECU and the Buff $mart partnership is that we’re making these students aware, to the very best of our ability, of the implications of extended borrowing,” Wendler said.

The partnership and establishment between the university and the credit union began in 2020 after launching the Buff $mart Program, which allows fellow students to provide financial coaching to their WT peers as well as work in multiple operational areas such as marketing, accounting, compliance, business development and training.

“This gives us the opportunity to partner in a deeper way with WT, to identify students that have an interest in financial services and other professional areas, to help students earn internship credits, and what we hope for long term is that many of these students — after they graduate from WT — they will transition immediately and work for us,” Jenkins said.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: ECU opens new location and Buff $mart Branch