Three Stages, One Journey: Inside American Lake CU's Youth Program

Q1. Can you give us some background on yourself and American Lake Credit Union?

I'm Kolin McMann, President and CEO of American Lake Credit Union in Lakewood, Washington, just south of Seattle. I've been in the credit union industry for about 25 years, starting when I was 17. I've been at American Lake for 15 years now, since a merger brought me on.

Q2. What made your team decide a youth account revamp was in order, and where were you starting from?

We took a hard look at our standard account offering and realized how much banking has changed, especially with fintechs competing for young families. We wanted to get youth, and the kids and grandkids of our existing members, used to coming in and relying on us as a partner. I grew up going into my family's credit union just to say hi to the manager, no transaction needed, and that built trust early. By the time I needed my own accounts, that relationship was already there. Right now under 2% of our membership is 17 or younger, so there's a huge opportunity. It's about leveraging the trust parents and grandparents already have with us and building that same trust with their kids from an early age, so by the time they're buying their first car or getting their first credit card, they're not easy prey for predatory lenders.

Q3. What did you build, and why did it make sense to break it into different age categories rather than one broad program?

We leaned into the idea of walking alongside our members on their financial journey rather than telling them what to do. A five-year-old interacts with money completely differently than a 17-year-old who's getting paychecks and using a debit card. So we split it into three stages: Bright Steps for ages 0 to 8, Bright Path for 9 to 12, and Bright Stride for 13 to 17. Bright Steps isn't about transactions at all, it's about celebrating things like birthdays with coloring contests and giving kids an owl mascot as a financial steward. Bright Path is for preteens who are starting to get an allowance or make money doing chores, so we start teaching real concepts. By Bright Stride, kids are ready for a checking account and a debit card if their guardian agrees, and we teach budgeting and things like how to split a bill with friends. Our core system lets us set age parameters, so accounts automatically transition and rename themselves at the right birthday. It's seamless from a tech standpoint and it lets us market to each age group differently.

Q4. What did the internal process look like once you decided this was a priority?

Every year we do strategic planning with the whole team first, then take it to the board. Before we even defined the program, we surveyed our membership to ask what mattered most for a youth account. The answer was education and rewarding positive behavior, with cash being a big motivator. Our team was fully on board too, since a lot of them have kids of their own and saw the value immediately. It was a grassroots effort that started with the team's input.

Q5. How did you approach building this with limited resources?

We built almost everything in-house because we couldn't outsource a full third-party program. We even bought a hole punch on Amazon to spiral-bind our own activity books for the Bright Steps members. Breaking the program into stages also let us focus our limited bandwidth: get Bright Steps launched, then work on Bright Path, and save Bright Stride for last since it's the most technical piece, things like debit card provisioning and mobile banking. We wanted Bright Stride members to still have the tools they'd get from a competitor, just with our relationship and support behind it.

Q6. How do you bring adult members, parents and grandparents, into this conversation?

We lean on the trust we already have with them. When a member mentions they just had a baby or became a grandparent, we've started celebrating it with something small, like a onesie or an ornament. We also send handwritten note cards for milestones we hear about in passing, like a first home or a loan. When we invited our first 50 members into the new program, the letter was addressed to the parent on behalf of the child, framing it as an invitation to be part of the journey together rather than a call to action. There's no ask attached, just, we care, we see you, and we're here if you need us.

Q7. How did Start Young and Build Freedom fit into the Bright Path and Bright Stride programs?

I was trying to figure out what would connect with our older kids the way our owl piggy bank and gift buckets connect with the younger ones. I wanted something that could resonate with teens the way I couldn't, since I'm 25 or 30 years removed from that age group. A connection introduced us to Dream Publishing, and after meeting the team and hearing the story behind the book, it clicked. It wasn't just a boring handout, it actually talks to kids in their language with illustrations that feel relatable. It landed at exactly the right time, so we made it the cornerstone of what we hand kids when they graduate from Bright Stride into Bright Path, like a handbook for the journey we want to go on with them.

Q8. What advice would you give another credit union that knows it needs to revamp its youth accounts but hasn't started?

Start the process, take it one step at a time, and give yourself more time than you think you need. It's a big undertaking, but it doesn't have to happen all at once. Getting it right matters more than getting it out fast. Kids are the future of our institutions, our future leaders, our future members. It's an investment worth making.