HOULTON — Katahdin Trust has hired three young professionals to be a part of the bank’s first Internship Program.
An internship committee comprised of Katahdin Trust employees from various departments of the bank selected three college students from a pool of applicants to participate in the bank’s summer program. The interns are Riley Parady of Fort Fairfield, Mark Levasseur of Van Buren and Alyson McGillicuddy of Houlton.
The latest statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reveal only 27 percent of The County’s workforce is between the ages of 18-44 and economic development strategists say that anything below 30 percent is unsustainable.
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NEW INTERNS — The Katahdin Trust Company has selected three new interns for the summer. Named to the program are, from left, Riley Parady, Mark Levasseur and Alyson McGillicuddy.
“Our goal is to help create jobs in Aroostook County and to focus on young people as future leaders,” said Jon J. Prescott, Katahdin Trust president and CEO. “We want to show these college students that there are quality jobs right here in The County.”
Prescott explained that the program will give students a sense of professionalism that supplements their work in the classroom and show our younger population that they don’t have to leave The County to use their degree. The interns are assigned to a specific department as well as a mentor for the summer. They will concentrate on several projects within their specialty area. From mid-May through the end of August they will absorb significant groundwork and instruction in the world of banking. The program is designed to give these students insight into a broad range of financial services while strengthening their core skills to launch a successful career.
Parady will be interning in the marketing department. Parady just completed her third year at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and will be graduating next May with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in project management and management information systems.
Levasseur will be interning in the retail department. He just completed his first year at the University of Maine at Orono where he is studying business administration.
McGillicuddy will be interning in the operations department. She just completed her first year at Husson University where she is studying entrepreneurship and small business management. Parady and McGillicuddy will be based in the Houlton community, while Levasseur will be based in the Presque Isle community.
Katahdin Trust is a proud supporter and investor of the new initiative called Opportunities Aroostook, which grew out of the Aroostook Partnership for Progress (APP) Education to Industry initiative and is promoted by LEADers Encouraging Aroostook Development (LEAD). LEAD is a nonprofit corporation of community volunteers, established in 1986 for the purpose of fostering and encouraging the balanced development of Aroostook County. This ambitious project is to help improve the work force, increase the population and attract young professionals to Aroostook County.
Bob Dorsey, APP President, said, “The Education to Industry Initiative is crucial to stabilizing and growing the County’s future workforce which is essential for economic growth. Retention and attraction efforts such as the new Opportunities Aroostook website combined with internship opportunities at Katahdin Trust and some of the County’s largest companies are vitally important to ultimately improving the strength and numbers of our younger workforce.”
APP and LEAD are developing a prospective website that will be a core for connecting businesses, employers, job seekers and more. This website will bring a tremendous amount of help in advertising the opportunities. The LEAD Executive Director, Ryan Pelletier states: “Our goal is to raise the necessary funding, working with our business community, to create a state of the art presence on the web to entice job seekers and employers to post resumes, job announcements, etc. and be a resource that guides people back home.” Pelletier went on to say, “Katahdin Trust, along with other investors such as MMG Insurance, TAMC and Pines Health Services, have already contributed at least $13,000 to the funding for this website. We are all hoping to help make Aroostook County more attractive and in return; increasing the population and promoting the economy.”
