Empowering the next generation

Internship program offers hands-on, real-world experience for students exploring their careers

A major shift is occurring for personnel in the energy sector. The industry is growing 25% faster than overall U.S. employment and, over the next 10 years, one-third of skilled trades professionals will retire — leaving the workforce at a faster rate than younger workers can replace them.

To help bridge this gap and keep the electric grid safe and reliable, Great River Energy is continuing its efforts to educate young people about the diverse career opportunities provided by the electric industry, and specifically with electric cooperatives.

Great River Energy’s internship program has now taken on a more important role than ever, offering hands-on experience across several departments as part of the company’s commitment to developing future talent.

“The purpose of our internship program is to provide a well-rounded experience for students by providing exposure to the business world, the utilities industry and our organization,” said Heather Bittle, talent and outreach partner at Great River Energy. “Recruiting an engaged, innovative and inclusive workforce is part of our ‘shape the future’ strategic imperative and our intern program aligns with that.”

Learning to navigate real-world challenges

This year, the co-op welcomed a dynamic group of 23 interns from 11 different colleges and universities who brought fresh perspectives, enthusiasm and a strong desire to learn throughout the summer.

The transmission division employed 15 of the interns who worked in substation engineering, operational system performance, regional transmission planning, transmission line engineering, project management, business strategy and development, and safety and human performance.

In addition to their daily work, Great River Energy hosted workshops to help interns learn more about the business, the cooperative and utility space. Interns were also required to participate in three informational interviews with Great River Energy employees, giving them an opportunity to gain perspective on career options and receive advice.

They toured Great River Energy’s HVDC converter station in Buffalo as well. Bittle said these sessions helped interns navigate real-world challenges while learning about confidence.

Beyond technical skills, interns were immersed in Great River Energy’s culture of collaboration and safety. They attended team meetings, contributed to ongoing projects and engaged with mentors who guided their professional development. The program emphasized not only learning but contributing as well.

Developing talent and interest in the power industry

Kseniya Kravchenko, manager of operational system performance at Great River Energy, oversaw two interns from St. Thomas University.

Juliah Moriango, a senior studying electrical engineering, closely collaborated with the operations planning engineers on a variety of projects. Her work included conducting system outage studies, reviewing transformer settings and running contingency analyses. She also took on several projects with the energy management systems group where she actively worked with databases.

Another intern, Calvin Friedrich, is a college junior studying electrical engineering. He worked primarily with the cooperative’s reliability engineers on reviewing outages and maintaining compliance documentation. Friedrich was also involved in creating process documents to ensure future interns have a starting point when they take over his tasks.

“The main focus of our internship program is to develop talent and interest in the power industry,” Kravchenko said. “However, both Juliah and Calvin have been extremely valuable in helping system operations manage the enormous volume of construction projects.”

Ben Schwaller, manager of substation engineering, said interns in his department worked on several tasks including relay database updates and compliance initiatives, all the way up to small transmission projects. Often, Schwaller onboards interns as freshmen and keeps them through their senior year. He said this allows them to increase the difficulty of their workload over time, lets them work through the school year, and helps them apply their knowledge from school to the workforce.

“Our internship program has also been a pipeline for talent into the group,” Schwaller said. “We have three previous interns currently working in our group full time.”