sprayers are similar to a Tesla self-driving car. This precision technology that they have now is amazing.” The bank regularly hosts customer events featuring industry experts who discuss emerging agricultural technologies and market trends.“From time to time, we’ll try to bring in some good speakers and we’ll invite our particular ag customers,” Schifferdecker says. George adds institutional perspective: “We are invested in and understand our communities because we live and work in them. We and many of our bank officers, employees, and directors own farmland and have cattle operations.” Despite serving rural markets, the bank maintains competitive technological capabilities. “Just because we’re rural doesn’t mean that we are not competitive with those types of products that help our customers,” George emphasizes. INVESTING IN FINANCIAL LITERACY AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Rural communities face unique challenges in providing comprehensive educational resources, particularly in specialized areas like financial literacy. GNBank has addressed this gap through systematic partnerships with local schools. “We frequently go to local high schools and grade schools, planning with superintendents and principals to figure out how to assist with the financial literacy curriculum,” Schifferdecker explains. The programs include EverFi, a semester-long curriculum covering fundamental concepts from compound savings to checkbook balancing. “It teaches kids how to 133 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 10 GNBANK, N.A.
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