The splendor of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is undeniable. Lush vegetation, towering maples and pines, rolling hillsides, rivers, lakes and streams jam-pack this corner of the Green Mountain State. Along with the Kingdom’s abundant beauty come some very real challenges, including dangerous seasonal flooding that has increased with the effects of climate change. But the Kingdom is a region with a deep sense of community resolve. ̽̽’s Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships and Department of Community Development and Applied Economics are working to assist those community efforts with student internships, building deeper, sustained connections.
A new model for the internship experience
The latest internship cohort, the 2024 Northeast Kingdom VT Community Resilience Summer Internship Program, is the second such group developed and funded by the Leahy Institute.
“We worked with businesses and organizations supporting community resilience in the Northeast Kingdom that hadn’t previously hosted interns, and that had limited connection with ̽̽,” said Kristen Andrews, ̽̽ Intern Outreach and Engagement Professional. “Some groups were initially skeptical, wondering if these interns would be commuting from Burlington, how would they be supported locally, how many hours would they work, who would pay them. They told us interns needed to work a minimum of 20 hours per week to learn the job and a place to live close by, but that doesn’t take housing away from locals. The ̽̽ funding empowered these groups to hire and supervise an intern, and we insisted that interns be placed on an organization’s payroll, which the grant reimbursed at the end of the summer. This helped them see themselves as intern hosts that employ students now and in the future.”
The result was an eight-week program that supported 11 ̽̽ students and one Sterling College student who immersed themselves in projects that focused on community resilience in the region. In addition to housing, the program provided each intern with a livable wage for the 20 hours per week they worked to support these local non-profits.
“The goal is to put community need at the center of the work,” said Patricia Coates, director of the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships and the Office of Engagement at ̽̽. “That's where we both show the best of ourselves; ̽̽ shows the best of itself when it’s engaged with a community. We're not coming to the Northeast Kingdom with solutions. We're coming with capacity and a desire to learn and do things together.”
“There are students at ̽̽ who’ve never been to the Northeast Kingdom, and throughout their four years, they'll hear of this mystical place up in the far reaches of the state, and never actually go there,” said ̽̽ Associate Professor Travis Reynolds, the faculty partner and the program’s co-coordinator. “One of the goals of this project was to make this place real and to make it accessible – not just to the interns, but to the broader ̽̽ student body.”
“South House” – Home Base
For the interns, an important access point to the Northeast Kingdom was their living quarters. Originally an inn, South House at Sterling College is a white colonial home built in the 1820’s in the heart of Craftsbury Common. It’s now part of the residential college, whose curriculum is devoted to ecology and immersive learning. The location offered a home base of sorts, a place for interns to unwind, socialize, and participate in activities together. The students also engaged with the Sterling College Farm through a workshare that provided them with fresh produce in exchange for a few hours of farm chores. All but one of the interns lived at Smith House, and each Wednesday the interns gathered with their cohort for field trips and opportunities for professional development, networking, and reflection led by ̽̽ faculty and staff. Since South House would otherwise be vacant during the summer, this arrangement avoided additional strain on an already thin housing rental market in the area.
“I think it's been very successful having that residence,” said Reynolds. “It brings all the students together to reflect on their day and support each other. But also, it makes the logistics so much more feasible rather than trying to drive back to Burlington.”
With intern housing addressed, interns were scattered to the corners of the region to explore one of nine different intern sites throughout the Northeast Kingdom, from Craftsbury to Newport. Following are a few highlights of student interns in the program.
Building a Sensory Trail in Glover
Graduating senior Carolyn Kelly from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and Terra Schommer, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, assisted the Glover Equity Committee in creating an immersive sensory trail at Glover Park. The trail features 10 sensory stations, a pavilion, a sound station, a tactile path, and community garden beds, all aimed at engaging visitors through sight, sound, touch, and motion.
Kelly and Schommer were critical in the trail's construction. They transplanted trees, dug trail lines, and built benches. The final day of their internship saw the two of them hoist a towering pillar of solid cedar into the ground to install the park’s new road sign.
Interns Terra Schommer and Carolyn Kelly work with members of the Glover Equity Committee on constructing a new pavilion and signage for an immersive sensory trail at Glover Park.
“I had a senior project in wood shop, that was the extent of my knowledge with tools,” said Kelly. “Both of us were excited about hands-on wood building. I want to learn lifetime skills and I haven't had the opportunity to do woodwork since senior year in high school.”
“This project is so important,” said Schommer. “Just seeing kids use the park and be able to be a part of something that's for a whole community. I've never really had the opportunity to work with a group of people in multigenerational groupings, so that's definitely impacted me.”
The project has galvanized community volunteers hoping to make this a space for mindfulness and reflection, particularly with the inclusion of a "Sense of Peace" station dedicated to veterans.
Climate change and natural disasters forced the group to rethink placement of this park away from the village and into a less vulnerable place. The end result is a sensory trail elevated from the roads and rivers, designed for community members of all abilities.
“We really need community assets that can be shared public spaces,” said Jethro Hayman, chair of the Glover Equity Committee. “The town designated this for outdoor recreation, no major development is allowed. It’s just sitting here doing nothing, why not make something amazing for everybody? This project is way more impactful than the amount of money, because we're bringing in so many volunteers; we're bringing in the whole community.”
The sensory trail opened to the public in August.
Supporting Community Gardens in Newport
Nadiya Becoats, a rising junior in the College of Arts and Sciences supported local food systems and maintained community gardens all over the region as part of the Green Mountain Farm to School Initiative.
“These gardens are taken care of by kids during the school year, and I make sure the beautiful plants that they gardened are still there when they come back in the fall,” Becoats said.
Her tasks included weeding, planting, and also making sure that produce like squash and tomatoes are ready for The Lunchbox, a food truck that provides free meals to local children during the summer.
Nadiya Becoats maintaining a community garden as part of her work with the Green Mountain Farm to School Collective.
Becoats also worked with the Green Mountain Farm Direct Food Hub, a platform that connects local farms with schools, senior meal sites, and retail stores in the Northeast Kingdom. She created promotional content, updated producer descriptions, and ensured that local farms were accurately represented online.
“This work is crucial for promoting small-scale farmers,” Becoats said. “That’s the community resilience piece; we’re making sure that we’re getting their name out there and helping them further down the line with creating a marketing presence. If we’re going to be the only people that can promote these small-scale farmers, we have to be the voice for them.”
Originally from Rochester, N.Y., Becoats has grown to appreciate rural life in Vermont. Her involvement with Green Mountain Farm to School strengthened her connection to the community while influencing her career aspirations.
“This experience has shown me that I want to continue working in food systems,” Becoats said. “Especially in a way that allows me to support local communities.”
Reporting the News in Hardwick
NEK local Lucia McCallum, a rising Senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, spent the eight-week internship reporting and writing stories for the Hardwick Gazette. During this time, she focused on sharing stories on community resilience, a theme that has become increasingly relevant following the devastating floods in Vermont these past two summers.
Initially, McCallum’s work focused on various aspects of local life in the Northeast Kingdom, such as covering the efforts of small-town school funding and the initiatives of local organizations, including AWARE, a domestic violence support group. McCallum was born and raised in Cabot and her lifelong connection with the community provided her with a local perspective, allowing her to connect more personally with the subjects and stories she covered.
Lucia McCallum working on a story in the offices of the Hardwick Gazette.
“Local news is kind of divorced from the ‘attention-grabbiness’ of [national] news,” said McCallum. “Coming from a small community, I know that there are certain things that just need documentation and need to be talked about for communities to have a strong, informed core.”
The recent floods shifted her focus to a different kind of resilience, one of ongoing response to natural disasters. McCallum documented the efforts of KURRVE (Kingdom United Relief and Recovery Effort), a community-based organization formed to assist long-term flood recovery. Through her reporting, she highlighted the ongoing struggles of local residents, such as a 78-year-old woman whose home had been repeatedly flooded.
McCallum’s experience at the Gazette reinforced her belief in the importance of local journalism. She sees it as a vital tool for documenting the struggles and resilience of small communities, offering them a voice in a media landscape that is often dominated by larger, more sensational stories.
“Resilience means seeing, documenting, being a witness to tell these stories,” said McCallum. “Resilience also is understanding the problem too. You need to have a picture of what the problem is before you can address it.”
A Sustainable Model for the Future
The experiences of the community resilience cohort across the summer were vastly different from one another, ranging from hosting a farmers’ market (and salvaging it as flood waters rose), exhibit design at the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, addressing food security for migrant workers, even creating a miniature golf course at the Highland Center for the Arts.
A main goal of this pilot program is to build a system that could be replicated and supported in the future.
“We’re thinking about this as building a longer-term relationship with some specific partners in the Northeast Kingdom,” Reynolds said. “But when we provide housing at a local site, it becomes possible to have 20-hour-per-week internships not spending half the time driving, or missing shifts because of travel difficulties. That's something that we hope could be done in a way that would broaden ̽̽’s impact across the state.”
At the interns’ final presentations in August, members of the hosting organizations praised the interns, and pointedly asked how ̽̽ would ensure the sustainability of this program.
Terra Schommer and Carolyn Kelly giving their final presentation before fellow interns and members of their hosting organizations.
“The work you all gave to the community, it was exactly what we needed,” said Jethro Hayman of the Glover Equity Committee. “From a community perspective, this is the type of partnership and relationship that’s important for students, for working with the community and applying their skills instead of just in the classroom, it so great to see that separation from campus and community completely broken down and all of us working together.”