Summer Interns Gain Experience, Provide Valuable Service for Blue Ridge Members
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Public Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383, Ext. 3213; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (August 25, 2008) – Many area students are back at school, but several ambitious high school and college students were learning on the job all summer as they performed internships at Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation.
The student interns provided valuable services to the cooperative’s members in both customer service and electric service operations.
Marc Colvard, who is a student with the Career Center development program with Caldwell County Schools, served as an intern member services representative in Watauga district. He also previously conducted an internship in the member service area of the cooperative’s Caldwell district office.
Josh Greene worked in the operations area during his summer internship for Caldwell district office. He is a student at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute purusing his Associate in Arts degree. He has also worked in landscaping and construction.
College student Kevin Jones served as an intern in engineering services. The position is based in the Lenoir corporate office and involved responsibilities all across the cooperative’s service area. Kevin has completed his junior year at Virginia Tech where he is pursuing a degree in electrical engineering.
Josh Cook served as summer intern for Watauga operations. Josh, a student at Watauga High School and Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, has spent the past several summers working in construction and carpentry.
Chad Greene served as summer intern for Alleghany operations. Chad is a recent graduate of Ashe County High School and has worked in landscaping and construction for several summers.
Dale Thompson served as summer intern for Ashe operations. He is a student at Ashe County High School and has worked at Food Lion over the past year.
“Our summer intern program reflects our efforts to work with our youth and help develop future leaders as well as provide practical training and critical skills development for entering the job market,” said Julie O’Dell-Michie, vice president of human resources and administration for Blue Ridge Electric. “These students are some of the best and brightest among their classes and Blue Ridge as well as the students benefit from the program.”
Blue Ridge Electric’s summer intern program is designed to assist students interested in pursuing careers in energy related fields such as becoming a line technician, electrical engineer, energy advisor, or utility customer service. While performing internships at Blue Ridge Electric, students not only gain real-life work experience and school credits in some cases, they also learn about the consumer-focused, not-for-profit cooperative model for providing electricity and energy services.
