Northern Lakes Economic Alliance • 231-582-6482 • info@northernlakes.net
Andy Hayes, NLEA President
Past NLEA Interns have come from a wide variety of universities including: Alma, GVSU, Xavior, MSU, Ball State, CMU, Hope, and U-M.
The DTE Energy Foundation will once again provide funding for our NLEA Summer Interns program. This will be the fifth year of the program, which enables the NLEA to provide a “real world” opportunity for area college students on a meaningful project. Past projects have included: developing an entrepreneur toolkit, broadband fiber project, marketing videos highlighting hot jobs in the area, and marketing photos/materials for the up-north trails project.
NLEA typically hires two students from the area who have completed their junior year of college (however there have been a couple great interns that were freshman and sophomores). The students’ skill sets and course of study will be matched to the project to give them experience working in their field. Interns will learn to work as a team member of a professional staff and gain experience networking with communities, businesses and education leaders. This is a full-time position, paying $15/hour plus travel expenses at 40 hours/week roughly for the months of June, July, and August. Start-end dates will be adjusted to fit their college schedules.
This year’s project will focus on the “shovel ready” development sites throughout our NLEA service area. We want to develop a deeper marketing package that goes beyond the basic site info and key contacts. Once complete the materials will be used by the NLEA as well as local partners (Local Units of Governments, Chambers of Commerce, EDC, etc.) as well as the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and our regional council of governments as we all market the sites to potential companies. This work will give our area and sites a “leg up” on the competition.
This is truly a great experience, but don’t take my word for it. Here are comments from our past group of superstar interns:
“Working at the NLEA was an amazing summer job. I was able to meet a lot of great people across Northern Michigan, and learn about many different career opportunities. This was an invaluable opportunity, and I have used the skills I learned over, and over again.” – Sydney Smith, 2017 intern
“Going into my first internship feeling intimidated, NLEA created a fun learning environment!” – Isabel Hess, 2018 intern
“Interning at NLEA was one of the best experiences I had in college. It opened me up to future internship and job opportunities and allowed me the chance to work with a fun, dynamic group.” – Amanda Fischer, 2017 intern
If you know of a good candidate (and by that, I mean someone you think so highly of that you would hire them yourself) then please contact myself, or Hannah Sanderson at the NLEA office 231-582-6482 or email info@northernlakes.net.
