FAIRMONT — Minnesota Valley Action Council recently renewed an agreement with Martin County to fund an annual summer youth internship administrative program. The program provides summer work experience for youth living in Martin County.

Vicki Paskey of Minnesota Valley Action Council provided an update on the program, starting with its inception in 2012.

“The late Commissioner Steve Pierce came to both the Workforce Center and the South Central Workforce Council, who partner with us on this program, and asked us to create a program for kids for the summer,” Paskey stated. “So then I had conversations with people from the Workforce Council and the Workforce Center, and I was asked to put something together for the program.

“I had done my college internship here in Fairmont and that gave me the idea that it would be great if we had a program for college students to come back and get actual experience in an internship here in Martin County. From there we had the Martin County Internship program, which I co-authored with Steve Pierce, and Scott Higgins was involved too.”

Paskey noted that during that time, the state began the STEM program, and she saw a lot of engineering students apply.

“What I didn’t realize was that there were so many engineering careers,” she said. “We’ve also had a lot of physical therapy students and students interested in pre-med. Dr. Corey Welchlin has been very helpful and the Center for Specialty care has taken a lot of medical and physical therapy students, and they really give them a well-rounded internship. They’ve been observing operations, shadowing doctors, learning about medical insurance and things like that.

“We’ve worked with the Bank Midwest operation Center, and Profinium has also used some of our interns. When we think of psychology students, we’ve had really good luck with Eunoia. They not only let students work with metal health practitioners and psychologists, but they also learn about how to use the insurance aspect of things and how to respect the privacy of clients.

“We have one lady here who had her internship during her last year of college,” she continued. “There was some new legislation out called ‘Ban the box’ so people with criminal backgrounds didn’t have to reveal that information on their applications until they got an interview with a business, so she helped with that. She also now helps with people who are looking to get into the workforce, helping them write resumes and get back to work.”

One exciting thing for Paskey is to have seen former interns take on their own intern through the program.

“One of the best ones we’ve worked with has been Blake Potthoff, the executive director at the Fairmont Opera House. He was one of our interns, and last year he took an intern himself. So that is really full circle for us, to have one of our former interns working in the community and to be able to take another intern.”

Paskey went on to state that the program has received a lot of positive feedback, both from interns and businesses alike. She also notes that many interns have chosen to stay in or come back to Fairmont and Martin County over the years.

“Sometimes we have as many as 30 to 32 applicants, and sometimes we have around 20. Our age range is 18 to 24 years old, and we’ve been fortunate to have at least one person come back to Martin County each year, sometimes two or three. If somebody actually stays or comes back, buys a home and starts a family, that’s almost a full return on our investment.

“For those who want to come back, there’s usually an opportunity for them and that’s a good thing. We really do have an aging population, and we want to make sure that we have young people who are interested in being here and bring in their knowledge and skills to maintain the quality of life that we enjoy in our community.”

Paskey also mentions businesses who have not hired an intern before.

“That can be intimidating, to think about trying to put a student to work for 29 to 30 hours a week,” she said. “We have the student actually help the business develop the general job description. So what happens is they discover there is a lot of things a student can bring to the workplace.

“It really turns out to be a win-win situation. Students feel appreciated, and they bring a lot of ideas to the table.”