Fellows will join CSC intern in promoting region
By Kerri Rempp, Discover Northwest Nebraska Director
Discover Northwest Nebraska is partnering with Chadron Public Schools and Educational Service Unit 13 to host two interns from the Rural Futures Institute this summer after the Chadron community’s success with RFI Fellows last year.
Chadron Public Schools hosted three interns in 2019, where the students focused their efforts on mental health awareness. The 2020 interns will devote approximately 40% of their time in Chadron working with Discover Northwest Nebraska to further develop tourism in the region.
“Tourism is an important economic driver in Dawes County and Northwest Nebraska,” said Director Kerri Rempp. “The recent COVID-19 pandemic has already and will continue to disrupt the 2020 tourism season for the region. Having interns available for the summer will allow us to focus on promoting local and regional tourism through staycations and complete several planning projects to put us in a good position for 2021.”
Tyra Ann Reardon and Sawyer Smith have been assigned to Chadron through RFI Fellows program. Reardon is a senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, while Smith is a sophomore at UNL. This year’s internship program will last eight weeks.
The interns are required to provide 10 hours of community service and also will complete coaching sessions to earn their Inclusive Leadership Development Certificate.
“A hybrid between service learning and traditional internships, RFI Fellows experiences provide communities with tangible results on important self-defined projects while giving students resume-building work and insight into the career and life opportunities in rural places,” the Rural Futures Institute website reads. “In this unique experience, student pairs directly support community efforts as a whole, often serving as the link between many entities.”
Reardon and Smith will be mentored by leaders from each of the partnering organizations. Terri Haynes and Sandy Montague-Roes will oversee the students’ work on the mental health initiatives. Rempp will mentor the students for Discover Northwest Nebraska while Dr. Katherine Carrizales will do so for ESU 13.
The RFI Fellows will join Chadron State College intern Brandon Davenport in the development of programs and marketing campaigns designed to enhance the tourism industry in Northwest Nebraska. Davenport is majoring in journalism and plans to graduate in December.
“Having three interns available this summer will allow Discover Northwest Nebraska to move forward with several items I would like to see accomplished and in a much faster time frame than would be possible without their efforts. It will also provide all three interns with valuable work experience and a boots-on-the-ground look at destination marketing,” Rempp said.