{"id":1511,"date":"2013-05-13T16:55:41","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T20:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=1511"},"modified":"2013-05-13T16:55:41","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T20:55:41","slug":"alumni-bankers-emphasize-community-service-stewardship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2013\/05\/13\/alumni-bankers-emphasize-community-service-stewardship\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Bankers Emphasize Community Service & Stewardship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Univest\"

At Univest in Souderton, Pa.: (from left) Tim Swartley ’94, Bryce Bergey ’06, John T. Landes ’82<\/p><\/div>\n

You\u2019re probably familiar\u00a0with the rich subgenre of editorial cartoon art lampooning \u201cfat-cat\u201d bankers, whose status as public punching bags has only grown over the past several years as \u201cmortgage-backed securities\u201d entered the national vocabulary and the economy sputtered.<\/p>\n

\n

But bankers come in all shapes and sizes, and the fat-catting that goes on at a multinational bank on Wall Street bears little resemblance to the day-to-day operations at a community bank like Univest in Souderton, Pennsylvania, where Tim Swartley \u201994<\/strong> heads the retirement services division. At institutions like these, Swartley says, the mission is quite simple at heart: taking in customers\u2019 money for safekeeping, then lending it back in the community to finance home purchases, business growth and other means to progress and prosperity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite part of the job is enabling others,\u201d says John Beiler \u201987<\/strong>, CEO of Park View Federal Credit Union in Harrisonburg, Virginia. \u201cIt is very rewarding to work for an institution that has helped many individuals who might otherwise have been overlooked by the broader financial industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Park

Alumni employed at Park View Federal Credit Union. Front row, from left: Sarah Kalichman, Emily Burkholder, Nancy Marcellus, Marcia Weaver, Kayla Miller, Diane Martin, John Beiler, Yvonne Boettger, Pam Martin, Susanah Wideman, Ken Gonyer, Phyllis Liskey, Tanya Holland. Back row: Dustin Stutzman, Chelsea Mast, Jonathan Tieszen, Lisa Lehman, Tim Schmoyer, Julie Yoder, Daryl Brubaker, Melanie Eby, Jason Ropp, Cristina Graber Neufeld, Leo Heatwole, Sue Halterman, Melanie Schlabach, Michele Baker. Not pictured: Molly Boese, Aaron Brydge, Ben Delp, Kathryn Fenton, Karen Gonyer, Dan and Megan Sandberg, Sharisa Zook.<\/p><\/div>\n

Serving Main Street folks<\/h3>\n

Because the credit union has a low-income service designation, Beiler says it can provide reasonable and affordable services to members who might otherwise pay high fees and interest rates elsewhere for financial services like check cashing, money orders and pay-day loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancing a home is the largest financial transaction that most people undertake,\u201d adds Jonathan Tieszen, MA \u201903<\/strong>, a mortgage loan officer at Park View Federal Credit Union.<\/p>\n

Tieszen also said helping people realize some of their very practical and exciting goals, like buying a house for the first time or refinancing a mortgage to fund a home improvement project, is one of the most rewarding parts of his job.<\/p>\n

(This credit union was originally founded to serve EMU faculty and staff in 1969. It was run out of an office in the science center for nearly a decade; for a bit more detail, see story on math-oriented alumni who are in higher education, pp. 6-10.)<\/p>\n

Vickie Smith \u201906<\/strong>, vice-president of human resources and mortgage services at Beacon Credit Union in Lynchburg, Virginia, feels a similar satisfaction when customers drive by to show her vehicles\u00a0or invite her to visit homes that they\u2019ve purchased with loans she\u2019s helped them secure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed helping people,\u201d says Smith, who worked for 18 years at a bank in Harrisonburg and previously served as CEO for three other credit unions in Virginia.<\/p>\n

Several alumni who work in banking note parallels between the Anabaptist emphasis on service stressed at EMU and the missions of the institutions where they now work.<\/p>\n

Supporting the community<\/h3>\n

John T. Landes \u201982<\/strong>, chief credit officer at Univest, says his job allows him to serve the community by providing financing that helps local businesses grow and employ more people, and by advising and helping commercial clients find solutions to financial and economic challenges.<\/p>\n

There are other, broader cultural similarities shared between EMU and Univest, where Bryce Bergey \u201906<\/strong> is vice president. An open Bible sits at the head of the boardroom table, and the bank\u2019s directors open each of their meetings with devotions, a practice that might be viewed as odd in other bank boardrooms. And two of the bank\u2019s five core values \u2013 \u201cspirituality\u201d and \u201ccommunity\u201d \u2013\u00a0will sound familiar to anyone who\u2019s ever spent time around EMU.<\/p>\n

While exploring job options after college, Swartley was encouraged by leaders at Univest to pursue a voluntary service term before beginning his career. He remained in contact with the bank and was hired there after his return to Pennsylvania, where he now enjoys the variety of his day-to-day encounters: retirement savings presentations, elementary school talks, budget planning, continuing education, and entertaining clients on the golf course, among other activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core values of this organization are very similar to what we had growing up and at EMU,\u201d says Landes.<\/p>\n

In addition to his work at Univest, Bergey also has opportunity to build on the global perspective emphasized at EMU through his position on the board of Mennonite Economic Development Associates. In this role, Bergey travels to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, four times a year to work on an economic development partnership with a large insurance provider there.<\/p>\n

Being good stewards<\/h3>\n
\"Gerald

Gerald Hershey ’82<\/p><\/div>\n

Another EMU value that\u2019s constantly on the minds of alumni who work for banks and credit unions is the concept of stewardship.<\/p>\n

While his technical title is \u201cPresident\/CEO,\u201d Gerald Hershey \u201982<\/strong> prefers to describe himself as the \u201cchief steward\u201d at DuPont Community Credit Union, based in Waynesboro, Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the guy that\u2019s responsible to take care of the assets and culture of the organization,\u201d says Hershey. \u201cI\u2019ve been entrusted to nurture and care for something that doesn\u2019t belong to me. Stewardship is a value that was lived by my parents, taught by the church and certainly presented at EMU.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the chief steward at the credit union, Hershey tries to popularize his employees\u2019 understanding of stewardship by frequently discussing it, and even asks job candidates to define it as the final question in their interviews.<\/p>\n

A sense of stewardship also motivates Rod Yoder \u201986<\/strong>, manager of the commercial credit department at Fulton Financial Corporation in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. As he reviews loan applications, Yoder says he makes decisions as if the money he is considering lending is his own \u2013 a strategy that checks any temptation to gamble on risky loans in hopes of turning a bigger profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money we are lending comes from people who trust us with their hard-earned money,\u201d says Yoder. \u201cYou need to ask yourself, \u2018If the money I\u2019m lending was coming straight from my personal savings account, would I still be willing to make this loan?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Giving sound advice<\/h3>\n
\"Philip

Philip Rush ’82<\/p><\/div>\n

At First Savings Bank in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, being a steward is close to the heart of Philip Rush \u201982<\/strong>, who majored in Christian ministries at EMU. As a trust and investment officer, he advises clients who have trust accounts on their financial decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many cases, my clients are elderly or have special needs, and they need me to do my best for them to stretch their resources as far as possible,\u201d says Rush.<\/p>\n

He adds that his conception of stewardship also applies to using his aptitude for numbers and finance to serve his church \u2013 it\u2019s a way \u201cto be a steward of the talents and resources that God has given me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At PVFCU, Tieszen applies stewardship to his work by using his lending expertise to make sure that clients fully understand the implications of a loan they\u2019re considering.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because you would be approved for [a specific] loan doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s the right thing to do,\u201d says Tieszen. \u201cMany times, people want to know if the financial transaction they are considering makes sense for them. If it clearly does not make sense, I\u2019ll let them know.\u201d<\/p>\n

tougher regulations<\/h3>\n
\"Rod

Rod Yoder ’86 at Fulton Financial Corp. in Lancaster, Pa<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite the many distinctions between the EMU alumni working in banking and the fat-cats of popular caricature, the entire industry has had to deal with the fallout of the Great Recession and the tougher regulatory climate that\u2019s ensued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brought it on ourselves, but it does put quite a burden on us,\u201d says Yoder of Fulton Financial, who devotes significant time to preparing statements and reports for regulators. (First the bank checks the work, then a bank checker checks the bank\u2019s work, and then a bank checker checker checks the bank checker\u2019s work, Yoder says, adding that the new regulations do make his company stronger.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tougher environment today than it was five years ago,\u201d adds Landes, noting that the regulatory burden falls especially hard on smaller institutions, due to the amount of time required for compliance (and Univest\u2019s $2.2 billion in assets puts it in the \u201csmall\u201d category).<\/p>\n

At the same time, increased scrutiny on the industry has created opportunities for banks that have earned, rather than abused, the public\u2019s trust. Beiler, for example, says PVFCU has grown recently, as people increasingly look for a financial institution they can trust.<\/p>\n

Feeling called to banking<\/h3>\n

In a way, this comes as validation of a lesson from EMU that stands out in Beiler\u2019s mind \u2013 the idea of \u201cbusiness as a calling\u201d by which \u201cone can use business as a means for creating good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEMU professors taught that building trusting relationships and creating loyal customers was a business formula for success,\u201d Beiler says.<\/p>\n

From a practical standpoint, Swartley (of Univest) remembers an internship opportunity with a brokerage in Harrisonburg as one of the most valuable parts of his EMU education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat internship \u2026 sparked my interest in investing and financial planning. I am grateful that I had that exposure as I was sorting out what I wanted to do with my degree,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Yoder says that when he first took his job at Fulton Financial, the year after graduation, he was intimidated by the degrees his colleagues held from more prestigious schools. That soon wore off, though, once it was clear that he was capable of holding his own with them in the workplace \u2013 evidence of the fact that EMU prepared him well for the career.<\/p>\n

He also still sometimes carries (literally) with him a more tangible legacy of his education at EMU: a nondescript black briefcase he bought for $30 at the bookstore when he was a freshman. \u2014 Andrew Jenner ’04<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019re probably familiar\u00a0with the rich subgenre of editorial cartoon art lampooning \u201cfat-cat\u201d bankers, whose status as public punching bags has only grown over the past several years as \u201cmortgage-backed securities\u201d entered the national vocabulary and the economy sputtered. But bankers come in all shapes and sizes, and the fat-catting that goes on at a multinational […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":1512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[320,321,316,319,317,323,322,315,318],"class_list":["post-1511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-bryce-bergey","tag-gerald-gershey","tag-john-beiler","tag-john-t-landes","tag-jonathan-tieszen","tag-philip-rush","tag-rod-yoder","tag-tim-swartley","tag-vickie-smith","issues-spring-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions\/1518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}