Contributed photo
GUEST SPEAKER — Bonnie Foster, senior vice president of retail sales at Katahdin Trust Company, spoke at a recent Southern Aroostook Development Corporation (SADC) board meeting about their summer internship program for local college students. Listening to the presentation are, from left, Terry Wade, retired plant manager and consultant for Smith & Wesson; Nancy Ketch, Houlton community development director; Chris Anderson, president of F.A. Peabody Company; Foster; Scott Dionne, SADC president and manager of S.W. Collins; Jerry York, general manager, York’s of Houlton; Jon McLaughlin, executive director, SADC; and Butch Asselin, Houlton town manager.
By Scott Dionne
SADC President
HOULTON — Katahdin Trust is one of the most forward thinking financial institutes in Aroostook and they have proved this once again with their college summer internship program initiated in 2014.
Southern Aroostook Development Corporation’s (SADC) Board of Directors hosted Bonnie Foster, Katahdin Trust Company’s senior vice president of retail sales, as their monthly education speaker at a recent board meeting,
Katahdin Trust Company, after a study showed that 30 percent of its workforce will be eligible to retire in the next ten years, developed a paid, college student internship program, in 2014. The goal was to alert the professional, young college students about job opportunities available within the bank with the hope that the interns would not only decide to work for Katahdin Trust when out of school, but spread the word that great jobs are available in Aroostook County to their fellow students.
The bank got a surprise when they interviewed 24 applicants for the three internship positions available. When asked where they saw themselves five years down the road, all applicants had different answers to that question, but not one said that they saw their future as being back in Aroostook. They all thought they had to leave The County to find good jobs.
The three interns chosen for 2014, after working the summer months, have chosen to come back after college and have agreed to go to work for Katahdin Trust as they found their skill set fit nicely with Katahdin’s needs.
Katahdin Trust has chosen three more interns for their 2015 program.
