In an effort to continue its work in the community by improving the career development of young professionals, TruWest Credit Union is excited to announce its continued partnership with Arizona’s local chapter of the Year Up career preparation program. Year Up is a one-year, intensive training program that provides young adults a combination of hands-on skills development, college-credit coursework, corporate internships and other career support.
This marks the second consecutive year that the Tempe-based credit union has partnered with Gateway Community College and the Year-Up internship program. The current internship ran January 2018 through June 2018. Alma Ruvalcaba and Jacob Tamayo were the two students selected. Both successfully completed and recently graduated from the program and accepted permanent full time positions with TruWest. Alma works in the Contact Center, while Jacob works on the Network Team.
“The real-world experience was something you can’t get in a classroom,” said Ruvalcaba.
Throughout the duration of the program, Ruvalcaba and Tamayo spent time at TruWest getting acquainted with the inner workings of every department, including record keeping, finance, marketing and both business and consumer lending.
“It really gives you a better understanding of the financial industry as a whole,” said Tamayo. “It’s important that programs like this exist and I am happy I got to be a part of it.”
“The Phoenix metro area has a lot opportunities for young people looking to start a career in the financial industry, but not everyone has the soft skills and professional experience that work best in a corporate office,” said Vice President of Member Services Jennifer Kimmell.
Kimmell, who supervised Ruvalcaba, believes in its success.
“TruWest believes these skills can be learned and has found Year Up is doing a top notch job at it,” said Kimmell.
With Ruvalcaba and Tamayo’s graduation and transition into the staff at the credit union, TruWest is sparing no delay and will have its next intern start in July 2018.
