Ogallala Commons Partners with KCVG to Build Community Internships

Ogallala Commons (www.ogallalacommons.org), a nonprofit community resource network working in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, is working with the Knox County Visioning Group to create a community internship in 2011 for motivated youth and college students.  Through this program, summer interns have the opportunity to carry out projects that add value to their local communities and institutions, while interns gain skill development, paid work experience, and hometown career exploration opportunities.

Since 2007, Ogallala Commons has created 54 internships in 5 states that provided enterprising youth and adults with a paid work experience, plus hands-on learning about the wealth, potential, and challenges of their hometowns.  Community Internships build a diverse range of skills for interns in community development projects, leadership development, entrepreneurship, nonprofit outreach, agricultural careers, health care, renewable energy, social networking, and rebuilding local food systems.  In addition to workplace skills, these internships offer networking with other rural interns working in 6 adjoining states--opening doors to new learning opportunities after the internship, while providing good experiences for job searching and resume building.

Ogallala Commons Community Internships can range from four weeks to ten weeks during the summer, and are available for students ranging from juniors in high school to college and graduate students. In addition to specific projects and activities, interns supervised by Ogallala Commons are exposed to eight experiences essential to living in the Great Plains: rebuilding local food systems, conserving natural resources, learning and sharing local history, youth engagement and entrepreneurship, community development and nonprofit work, public speaking, fostering a sense of place, and designing a career path.

Ogallala Common's main funding partner for creating Community Internships is CHS Foundation, the major giving entity of CHS, an energy, grains and foods company with a stewardship focus of building vibrant communities.

For more information about the KCVG and Ogallala Commons Community Internship, contact Jimi Coplen at 940-459-4121.  Also visit http://www.ogallalacommons.org/communityinterns.html  to learn more about the program, or to read blogs and see photos of what interns have accomplished in past years.