GSBC draws from the outcomes of student projects and collaborative learning to share bold insights with the industry. By elevating the perspectives of tomorrow’s leaders, we highlight the trends and ideas shaping the future of community banking today.
A review of recent GSBC peer group project topics reveals an important insight. While banks are actively exploring artificial intelligence, digital payments, culture, deposit stability and competitive positioning, these discussions consistently converge around a shared foundation: leadership continuity.
Each January, GSBC’s rising third-year students reveal what matters most in community banking. Their strategic projects offer a forward-looking view of the priorities shaping 2026, from innovation and culture to growth and community impact.
GSBC’s first-year Experience & Action Journals reveal the powerful questions students take back to their CEOs—on ALCO, risk, strategy, leadership and applying classroom learning at their banks. These reflections show how GSBC’s curriculum builds leaders prepared to deliver measurable value.
At GSBC’s 2025 Annual School Session, 107 students chose to spend their Sunday completing the first-ever Affordable Housing Micro-Credential. The four-hour session explored the history and present-day realities of affordable housing and challenged students to reflect on how their banks can play a role
Launched in 2023, GSBC’s Committed to Lead Micro-Credential equips students with CEO perspectives and personal development plans to impact banks and communities.
GSBC is proud to announce the expansion of its innovative student assessment tool, the Experience & Action Journal, a model thoughtfully designed to foster reflection, real-world application and strategic thinking.
The second-year class at GSBC’s Annual School Session spends an afternoon working in small groups debating “hard questions.” The topics focused on corporate culture and people in the adoption of technology and risks and possibilities of artificial intelligence in community banking.
This is the annual analysis of topics identified by rising third-year GSBC students for their strategic projects. Through this exercise, students are tasked with working with their bank’s leadership to identify an important issue facing the bank or industry.
Rising third-year students at GSBC have the opportunity to collaborate with a group of peers on technology, demographic and social issues that may impact the future of community banks. Together, the students form a “Signals Group.” The students research and brainstorm emerging changes and innovations, creative solutions and opportunities these signals may present to community banks.
As America’s Premier Community Banking School, GSBC takes pride in creating a strong sense of community through its Peer Group program. This initiative provides new students of the Annual School Session with a unique opportunity to form meaningful connections even before arriving on campus.
At the start of the session, the students were granted access to a digital workbook, which introduced GSBC’s Experience and Action Journal. Here are notable quotes from first-year students’ Experience and Action Journals:
In 2022, GSBC tasked a group of 11 volunteer alums to participate in a “Signals Group.” The group’s purpose was to research and report the findings of emerging technologies that are not widely known or understood.
GSBC is proud to announce that 57 members of the GSBC Class of 2024 have completed its innovative Committed to Lead micro-credential, a supplementary set of coursework designed to equip community bankers with the critical leadership skills necessary to guide their institutions in an evolving financial landscape.
GSBC is proud to announce a groundbreaking shift in student assessments for its Annual School Session with the introduction of the Experience & Action Journal. Departing from traditional exams, this innovative tool aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of student learning and real-world application within the banking industry.
Answering the question about the future of community banking has almost become a rhetorical exercise, as there are many variables but no clear answer. There are, however, several long-term trends that have been impacting this industry from which we can draw from in our attempt:
The Graduate School of Banking at Colorado (GSBC) is pleased to continue empowering community bankers through its Committed to Lead micro-credential.
Our guest on this episode of The Bolder Banking Podcast is Josh Thompson, VP of Business Banking with Clear Lake Bank and Trust in Clear
The Hard Question of managing employees’ desire for a fully or hybrid work environment was framed by a third-year student who looked at the issue through the lens of ensuring the bank’s desired corporate culture…This is a unique challenge for community banks.
The Hard Questions topics for GSBC’s 2023 session were selected from strategic projects developed by the third-year students…The first topic was “Banking as a Service,” or BaaS.
One of GSBC’s intersession projects is completed by members of each peer group. This project is an opportunity for collaboration and peer learning. The groups’ first task last fall was to agree on a topic. This can be a common problem facing each of their organizations, or an area they want to learn more about as a group.
