Three students within the Peace Country are among the 2020 Green Dream Bloggers winners of the Forest Products Association of Canada’s annual internship contest. Among the 11 total winners, Julia Hollingworth and Jamie Jacques are working with Weyerhaeuser in Grande Prairie, with Arianna Loogman serving her internship with Mercer International in Peace River.
“I’m doing a lot of really interesting different things than I expected I’d be doing,” says Hollingworth, who started her internship on May 4th. “I thought it would be just a fantastic experience adding some breadth to my resume, getting to work on new projects— that was the big appeal.”
Hollingworth migrated to the Weyerhaeuser mill from working with one of their contractors. She is coming in with a biology degree from UNBC, and is working towards the completion of a master’s degree at the University of Alberta.
Launched in 2013, the Green Dream Bloggers program provides students working in the forest products sector with an opportunity to promote their work experiences in Canada’s forests and mills throughout the summer. FPAC officials say Green Dream Bloggers also receive a scholarship to support their ongoing education, though an amount to be granted was not specified.
“Despite the serious challenges posed by COVID-19, our team was happy to see such great interest in the program again this year from both forestry companies and summer interns,” says FPAC President and CEO Derek Nighbor. “The Green Dream Bloggers program not only provides development opportunities for young Canadians and raises awareness of the different jobs in our industry, but it also showcases in real-time how we are sustainably managing our forests and the innovative and environmentally-friendly products being manufactured at Canadian mills.”
New blog posts are put up biweekly throughout the summer and can be found at http://thegreenestworkforce.ca/index.php/blog/.