New Intern at Generations Bank

There’s a new face at Generations Bank this summer, Brock Christensen of Superior, Neb. has joined the bank as an intern this summer.

Christensen, a senior at UNL is majoring in Ag Business and Banking and Finance.  He plans to graduate in December.

He heard about the internship program through the Nebraska Bankers Association and the Banking and Finance Program at UNL.  Alan Emshoff, President of Generations Bank was working through the Nebraska Bankers Association to find an intern from UNL’s Banking and Finance program for the summer and they were able to connect and offer Christensen the internship program.

About the same time Emshoff learned about a fairly young program sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.  “The Nebraska Department of Economic Development has an internship program for most business in Nebraska that gives them some reimbursement from the State of Nebraska to help pay the interns.”

Emshoff worked with the NDED, UNL and the Nebraska Bankers Association to post the ten week internship and Christensen immediately applied.

Christensen hopes to learn “all aspects of banking.  How to be a teller, how to do all the paperwork with a loan, meet a lot of people in the community. It’s a great experience just to see how a bank operates.”

While Christensen was unsure about his future before the internship “The experience here is convincing me to go into banking possibly.  After I get my bachelor’s degree I hope to get a job at a bank or whatever comes up.”

Emshoff sees Christensen’s response as one of the goals of the internship, “We have a shortage of good young bankers out there and through this program by providing an internship we can help have these young UNL grads come out into the workforce and become good Ag lenders.”

Emshoff noted several advantages he hopes Christensen will have through the internship, “One advantage he has is in coming to a small bank like ours is he gets to see many of the aspects of the banking industry – he will work at the teller line, look at credit analysis from the start to the actual making of the loan and see many processes from start to finish.  Even if Brock chooses to be a farmer rather than a banker, his experience here will help him understand what banks are looking for in an Ag setting.”

Most of all Emshoff hopes that the internship will give Christensen a leg up over other students, “I think the internship should improve his possibilities for getting a job just because of the experiences he has had here and the overview of the entire operation.  This should give him an advantage over other students.”

Christensen will remain work at Generations Bank until he gets ready to go back to his final semester of UNL this fall.