“You. Really?” Larry Smith feigned surprise when I told him I had a bit of an interest in entrepreneurship. A few months after I encountered the idea, I was explaining to the enterprising professor why I was pursuing this project.
I also have an affinity for the University of Waterloo and its students. Student-run financial services could benefit Waterloo students in many important ways. It may be an audacious project, but I think it is possible and it is surely worthwhile.
In the Winter term I was researching for another project and I started looking at businesses operated by university students that have a big impact on those that run them and those they serve.
Those I found included Harvard Student Agencies, which publishes the Let’s Go travel guides; Queen’s University bookstore, which is the main textbook supplier to students at the university in Kingston; and University Venture Funds, where students do research and make venture capital decisions.
Then I found a reference to Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union.
Since 1983 students at Georgetown in Washington D.C. have provided financial services to their fellow students. Now over 100 student volunteers run the credit union, which has about $10 million dollars in assets.
Students provide the customers service, they make the investment and loan decisions, file the regulatory forms and everything else in between.
There are other student-run credit unions. Students at Miami University in Ohio can become members at First Miami University Student Credit Union and the University of Pennsylvania has the Student Federal Credit Union.
Students at these schools can get better student-focused services, they can learn to manage their finances better, and can get amazing experience operating a financial institution.
That leads to the question: Why not at Waterloo?
We have begun working on a plan to start a student-run credit union at Waterloo under the organizational name Waterloo Banking Project. It will be a lot of work and we will need a lot of advice and assistance, but it will be worth it.
[...] The idea for student-run financial services at Waterloo [...]