Beginning this fall, the Virginia Bankers Association Education Foundation and seven Virginia banks will sponsor the new Virginia Banking Fellows Program in partnership with the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education. The mission of this new statewide program is to provide opportunities for deserving community college students to pursue their academic goals, strengthen their leadership skills and learn more about the banking industry.
Thirteen students from 10 Virginia community colleges have been designated as Virginia Banking Fellows and will each receive a $7,000 scholarship to support tuition, books, fees and other expenses related to their education. The banking industry contributed an additional $3,000 per fellow to cover educational elements and the administrative fees of the program, for a total of $10,000 per fellow and $130,000 in all. The Virginia Banking Fellows will be a cohort within the larger VFCCE Fellows Program, which was established in 2011 to help promising second-year students at Virginia’s community colleges.
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Fellows participate in statewide leadership training and conferences, cultural opportunities and community service activities. Virginia Banking Fellows will also have the additional opportunity to participate in online banking industry training as well as a variety of banking industry networking and educational events throughout the year.
For the 2022–23 school year, the VBA Education Foundation has committed a total of $60,000 to sponsor six fellows from Germanna Community College, Laurel Ridge Community College, Mountain Empire Community College, Patrick & Henry Community College and Rappahannock Community College.
Seven Virginia banks have also committed a total of $70,000 to sponsor a student from a community college for the 2022–23 Virginia Banking Fellows Program: Blue Ridge Bank at Blue Ridge Community College; Chesapeake Bank at J. Sargent Reynolds Community College; First Bank, Virginia at Laurel Ridge Community College; Atlantic Union Bank at Northern Virginia Community College; The Bank of Clarke County Foundation at Northern Virginia Community College; TowneBank at Tidewater Community College; and American National Bank & Trust Co. at Virginia Western Community College.
