Pub. 3 2014 Issue 7

September 2014 17 l e a d i n g a d v o c a t e f o r t h e b a n k i n g i n d u s t r y i n k a n s a s MOTHER-DAUGHTER TEAM GRADUATES GSBC TOGETHER: A FIRST FOR THE 64-YEAR-OLD SCHOOL By GSBC and CBA staff M ANY PARENTS HOPE THEIR children will one day follow in their footsteps and choose the same career, once they’re grown and out on their own. But for Jamie Matile, her daughter Allison Garst may have caught the banking bug much sooner. In 1986, when Matile was five months pregnant, the bank where she worked was closed by the FDIC. Now 28 years later, her daughter Allison is a successful bank regulator with the Office of State Bank Commissioner in Kansas. The pair shares not only the bond of a mother and daughter, and the love of a shared career in banking, but also the same graduation day. Matile, vice president of Girard National Bank in Kansas, and Garst, in July, both graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado. That’s a first for the 64-year-old school, which graduated 160 class members on July 24. Matile and Girard have been roommates at the school since 2013 when Garst enrolled as a second-year direct student. “Practically joined at the hip, they are always found smiling and enjoying Boulder together,” staff at the GSBC recalled. The Graduate School of Banking at Colorado is America's Premier Community Banking School. GSBC maintains a commitment to the values of the community-banking industry by providing an educational experience sensitive to challenges experienced by banks of all sizes and business models. The school was formed in September 1950, when the Colorado Bankers Association (CBA) and the University of Colorado (CU) Board of Regents co-sponsored the organization and operation of the Colorado School of Banking for approximately twenty Colorado bank employees for a two week period in the summer of 1951 on the Boulder campus of CU. Soon it was determined GSBC would continue indefinitely for two weeks every summer on the Boulder campus without limitation on the number of students. The school has educated more than 8,000 bankers, regulators and other members of the financial services industry. “It’s been a lot of fun going through school together,” Garst said of attending GSBC with her mother. “In fact, we’ve decid - ed that we need to make a trip to Boulder an annual event—just the two of us.”