A cohort of 11 ̽̽ interns in the first ever Central Vermont Statewide Internship Program wound up their work during the first week of August. They all contributed their talents to small, thinly staffed central Vermont businesses and non-profits that are often strapped for the time and resources to tackle projects like business planning, social media strategy and community outreach.
Students and supervisors found the experience rewarding, but they couldn’t have anticipated the quick pivot required when heavy rains and flooding disrupted many central Vermont communities last month.
CVSIP is the brainchild of a partnership between the Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation (CVEDC), ̽̽’s Office of Engagement and the ̽̽ Career Center.
“We were especially interested in reaching out to businesses in regions outside Chittenden County,” said internship coordinator Kristen Andrews, “We also wanted to make sure the positions were fully funded, making the experience doable financially for both students and business owners.”
̽̽’s Office of Engagement provided funding for the program while Melissa Bounty, Executive Director of CVEDC, combed her network of business owners to recruit site partners. The combined resources from ̽̽ funding and participating businesses meant interns would earn $20 per hour throughout the summer. Workshops organized by Andrews throughout the summer provided a space for students to share their experiences, develop and practice professional skills and hear from experts about economic opportunities in rural Vermont.
“Together we created a model that could serve businesses new to hosting interns as well as those that just needed some extra funding to bring back their former internship programs. We also made sure the projects were robust and provided opportunities for students to challenge themselves and demonstrate their considerable skills.”
Ally Joy Updegrove ’25 in Barre
Ally Joy Updegrove ‘25, a business major in the Grossman School, spent the summer building a five-year business plan for the Vermont Granite Museum in Barre. The non-profit museum interprets the rich history of the state’s granite industry, and it’s a busy place, open five days a week from the beginning of May through the end of October. It has just two full-time employees including director Dr. Scott A. McLaughlin.
“We’re heavily dependent on volunteers to keep the building and programming running, and we don’t always have the time or expertise to develop projects like a business plan,” said McLaughlin. “When I learned that ̽̽ was looking to place interns in Central Vermont, I said ‘sign me up.’”
Updegrove dove into the assignment, learning how granite shaped the economy and character of Barre. But during the second week of July, a stubborn storm system was showering the state with heavy rain, and the Stevens Branch of the Winooski River overflowed its banks flooding much of downtown. The museum remained dry, but McLaughlin needed to prioritize cleanup of the Central Vermont Railroad Depot, a building owned by the museum located in the heart of Barre City and directly in the path of the flood waters.
Updegrove was splitting her time between Barre and working remotely from her Burlington apartment. On her trips to the museum, she had to take several detours as a result of flooding on route 302, Barre’s Main Street.
“I realized the work I was doing was going to have to take a back seat. It was literally just making sure that people were OK, and that the town was OK, and the museum was going to be able to stay open,” Updegrove said.
She felt even more acutely the responsibility of delivering a solid project, even thought she’d have to complete it without the day-to day input provided by McLaughlin. “I wanted to hand off a plan that made it easy as possible for the museum to review it and execute it.”
Her final project included a historical timeline of the museum since its creation, an economic status report, detailed five-year goals and an action plan for completion.
Eamon Dunn ’24 in Plainfield
English major Eamon Dunn ’24 had a VPR internship under his belt when he arrived this summer at Vermont Community Radio (CVCR) In Plainfield, Vermont. An editor for the Vermont Cynic, most of his journalistic experience was in the print/online realms, but he was drawn to the grass-roots mission of CVCR, which provides local programming for central Vermont and parts of the Northeast Kingdom. For 50 years, CVCR was the supported by Goddard College. In 2021, pressures from the pandemic and cessation of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Goddard gifted the station to the community.
Dunn’s duties including raising the profile of the station at local events like farmer’s markets. “Because the station was previously supported by the college, they didn't need to emphasize underwriting so much. My role was to do the community groundwork needed to attract new underwriters,” he explained..
But the relentless July rainfall quickly forced a pivot. While the station itself was unaffected by the flooding, many communities in the station’s listening area were. Many of the events Dunn planned on attending were washed out, and businesses he was reaching out to for support were suddenly overwhelmed by their own needs.
“We were doing our best to be a media organization that’s helping the community in a time of need,” Dunn said. “It struck me how important it is, when something terrible happens, that there’s a place that can provide media resources local people need.”
Mulvaney-Stanak, the station manager at CVCR and Dunn’s supervisor, called Dunn’s experience “a tale of two internships.”
“Early on I told Eamon he was our ‘Johnny Appleseed,’ laying the groundwork for building our fundraising capacity. I told him not to be crestfallen if the seeds didn’t flower into trees right away. He was hitting his stride when we had to change course.”
The remainder of Dunn’s internship was spent preparing fundraising appeals to prospective individual donors. Mulvaney-Stanek and Dunn both feel the crisis was a lesson in itself—how small organizations require a nimble response to conditions outside their control.
Mulvaney-Stanak wouldn’t hesitate to hire another ̽̽ intern in subsequent summers. Between financial support offered by ̽̽ and a grant the station received from the Vermont Association of Broadcasters, they were able to piece together an internship rewarding to the student and the station.
“On my own, I would have had to wait before being financially ready to take on an intern. The extra support provided decent pay and the whole cohort experience, which was a really valuable professional experience for the students.”
Bryce Hird ’23 in Cabot
About 11 miles northeast of Plainfield is the village of Cabot where Bryce Hird ’23 completed his internship with the Cabot Community Association (CCA). Hird graduated this spring as a public communications major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with a minor in psychology.
Led by Executive Director Lori Augustyniak, the CCA has the broad mission of working with Cabot residents and organizations to create educational and recreational opportunities in town and supporting a lively local economy.
“Not for profits are continually challenged with more needs and work to do than you have staff power to do it,” said Augustyniak. “When I learned about the partnership I was cautiously optimistic. I was not sure that working for a small not for profit in Cabot would appeal to college students – but I was wrong to worry.”
In collaboration with Augustyniak and another ̽̽ intern, Matt Levy ’25, Hird took on a full plate of media projects including podcasts promoting Cabot’s trail system, social media posting, reorganizing CCA website content and writing articles for the Cabot Chronicle, a free online newspaper that is the hyper-local news source for all Cabot residents.
Hird wrote about interesting people and events he encountered in town. One of his first stories, aligned with a lecture from a visiting naturalist, highlighted the essential role of pollinators in the Vermont ecosystem and simple steps locals could take to protect pollinators like honeybees. It was typical of the stories he thought he’d be telling throughout the summer.
Mother Nature had other ideas. The Winooski River also runs through Cabot and many homes and businesses along the town’s Main Street were flooded.
“Lori introduced us to a lot of people in town when we first arrived, so when the floods came I felt I had real connections with a lot of the residents and business owners,” Hird said. His stories gave voice to residents and business owners who suffered losses.
“We weren’t able to complete the projects we set out to do, but I learned I need to be fluid with my thinking, instead of clinging to a fixed idea of what we were there for,” Hird said. It all kind of washed away, so to speak. I feel like we provided a service, just in a way we didn’t anticipate.”