BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, with its affiliate the Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies, in partnership with the Windham Higher Education Cooperative, says an internship program it launched, which places area college students at Windham County businesses, is paying dividends.
Students learn while they earn and get credit to boot. And at least one student has just landed a job through the program, supported by Vermont Technical College, Community College of Vermont, Marlboro College, SIT/World Learning, Union Intuition, and Union Institute and University.
Students from these six colleges work with their career centers and SeVEDS/BDCC Internship Coordinator Jan Coplan to find meaningful internships that further their career goals.
One participating student is Omoefe Ogbeide, who was taken on as a full-time paid intern at Fulflex Elastometrics Worldwide, a Moore Company, in Brattleboro.
Ogbeide is responsible for the company's World Class Initiative, a project that entails producing, reviewing, and updating the company's standard operating procedures for manufacturing, packaging, shipping.
Fulflex produces custom-mixed elastic and rubber products for customers such as Nike, Hanes, Procter & Gamble, General Electric, Vanity Fair, and 3M.
The company noted Ogbeide tackled this project enthusiastically, creating a large binder of easily accessible documents for employees' reference. And when asked how the placement was going from her point of view, Ogbeide said that she appreciates the support she gets from Coplan and her career counselor at Landmark College.
“My experience at Fulflex has been nothing less than gratifying,” Ogbeide said.
“We are very, very happy,” Fulflex Vice President Don Venice said. “She is doing very well.”
That's not idle praise. Fulflex just hired Ogbeide as a regular employee. She'll start when her internship term ends.