In October 2025, Nebraska Bank in Dodge, Nebraska, launched an in-school savings program at Bridgeport Elementary School, the local elementary school of the bank’s Bridgeport, Nebraska, branch.
Nebraska Bank Launches In-School Branch at Elementary School
In October 2025, Nebraska Bank in Dodge, Nebraska, launched an in-school savings program at Bridgeport Elementary School, the local elementary school of the bank’s Bridgeport, Nebraska, branch.
In the first year of the Bridgeport Elementary School branch of Nebraska Bank, students saved a total of $9,000. | Photo courtesy of Nebraska Bank
August 01, 2026 / By Ben Wagner
In October 2025, Nebraska Bank in Dodge, Nebraska, launched an in-school savings program at Bridgeport Elementary School, the local elementary school of the bank’s Bridgeport, Nebraska, branch.
In October 2025, Nebraska Bank in Dodge, Nebraska, launched an in-school savings program at Bridgeport Elementary School, the local elementary school of the bank’s Bridgeport, Nebraska, branch. The $500 million-asset community bank worked with the school to start the initiative, which promotes financial literacy among students and teaches them financial skills.
The branch is open every Tuesday during the school year. Kelly Roach, the bank’s vice president and branch manager, calls it “the highlight of our week.”
The Bridgeport branch is one of the bank’s three in-school programs. At each location, students can open a non-interest-bearing, deposit-only savings account. They get prizes for reaching certain savings goals and receive their account balance when they graduate from sixth grade.
“I don’t even think they consciously realize the savings habits they’re building,” says Roach. “You can hear the buzz [about the savings goals] from kids as they leave [the branch] … Their wheels are spinning about how they’re going to get those goals.”
At the branch, students go through four stations that teach different topics. Nebraska Bank also “hires” sixth-grade students as tellers; they go through the job application process and learn bank operations like filling out deposit slips.
“[We’ve gotten] great feedback and encouragement from teachers [and] faculty,” says Roach. “We’re super grateful to have really good support from all throughout the community.”
In the branch’s first year, an average of about 40 students participated weekly, saving a total of more than $9,000. One student even transitioned their savings account into a full-fledged checking account with Nebraska Bank.
Roach says the bank might expand to more schools in the future, while it hopes to establish lifelong financial connections with the young customers at their existing in-school bank branches. “Our hope,” says Roach, “is for [students] to open an account with Nebraska Bank … to help them keep building on that foundation of savings.”
Ben Wagner is an editorial assistant for Independent Banker.
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