Local students broaden career opportunities with co-op programs

Lots of stu­dents spend their sum­mers work­ing, learn­ing and invest­ing in their futures. Three stu­dents, in par­tic­u­lar, explored careers in the elec­tric coop­er­a­tive indus­try.

Dwayne Mitchell, now a senior at the Brad­well Insti­tute, com­plet­ed Coastal Elec­tric Cooperative’s Learn­ers Today, Lead­ers Tomor­row sum­mer work-study pro­gram with the co-op’s Safe­ty Depart­ment, and Rich­mond Hill’s Jere­mi­ah Hearn in the Oper­a­tions Depart­ment.

Dwayne assist­ed with HVAC and build­ing main­te­nance, as well as land­scap­ing. He also assist­ed line crews with res­i­den­tial ser­vice calls.

Jere­mi­ah spent time with Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive line crews—setting poles, pulling wire and help­ing with ser­vice calls. Oper­a­tions Man­ag­er Jake Hor­ton says Jere­mi­ah “worked out very well, and I hope he pur­sues a career in linework.”

After high school, each stu­dent who com­pletes the Learn­ers Today, Lead­ers Tomor­row pro­gram will receive a $500 schol­ar­ship to their uni­ver­si­ty or tech­ni­cal school of choice.

Jolie Clau­dio, a junior at the Geor­gia Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy, com­plet­ed an intern­ship with Coastal Elec­tric Cooperative’s Engi­neer­ing Depart­ment. Accord­ing to Engi­neer­ing Man­ag­er Chris Williams, Jolie spent the bulk of her time work­ing on phase bal­anc­ing the sys­tem, pre­vent­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion feed­er loss­es and sys­tem sta­bil­i­ty issues. Phase bal­anc­ing not only pro­motes Coastal Elec­tric Cooperative’s elec­tric reli­a­bil­i­ty, but it also saves mon­ey.

Jolie also learned oper­a­tion and pro­gram­ming of devices Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive uses to pro­tect the elec­tric sys­tem.

Part of the stu­dents’ time work­ing at the co-op was spent show­ing “Con­cern for Com­mu­ni­ty,” in the spir­it of Coop­er­a­tive Prin­ci­ple 7. Every week, they devot­ed time to serve var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions.

In July, for exam­ple— their last ser­vice project for the summer—they assem­bled race pack­ets for the 12th Annu­al Rich­mond Hill Red Hot Chili Pep­per 5K/10K Ral­ly ben­e­fit­ing Fam­i­ly Promise of the Coastal Empire. The mis­sion of Local stu­dents broad­en career oppor­tu­ni­ties with co-op pro­grams Fam­i­ly Promise is to end fam­i­ly home­less­ness by pro­vid­ing emer­gency shel­ter and basic needs to fam­i­lies with chil­dren who are expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness and assist­ing them to find hous­ing.

Know a high school junior who might be inter­est­ed in apply­ing for the Learn­ers Today, Lead­ers Tomor­row pro­gram or a col­lege stu­dent look­ing for an engi­neer­ing intern­ship? Fol­low Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive on social media to find out how to apply in Spring 2025.