By Brenna Souza

The Greater New Bedford Connecting Activities Partnership relies heavily on our involvement with area employers in order to be successful and to ensure that we make the most out of all high school interns’ experiences. The focus this year at the state level for Connecting Activities is to recruit and partner with more employers within the STEM field who are looking to “hire a youth.” STEM is based on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and students are being educated within all four disciplines. Work in the STEM field is growing rapidly and statistics have shown that the need for STEM related jobs will rise drastically by 2018.

The GNBCAP was extremely lucky this year to get the chance to partner with Tegra Medical, LLC. Tegra Medical stepped up and sponsored three students through the Connecting Activities internship program, who have worked in Engineering and Manufacturing while at the facility. Tegra Medical is a STEM employer who focuses on precision machining and contract manufacturing, which services the medical device industry.

Kenneth Campanale the Director of Regulatory and Quality at Tegra Medical, spoke with the GNCAP on the benefits he feels his organization received from hosting student interns. Mr. Campanale stated, “We have received more than what we have given to these students. The students are well prepared to work in a new environment and have a great work ethic. They have been an excellent resource to our team. Once they are trained on a task, they need little supervision with completing the task. We look forward to the summer months because we will have these resources to help support our team.”

Click here to see a video about the students experience at Tegra.
(video provided courtesy of Bristol Community College)

Employers who choose to host these student interns are given the chance to someday offer the students an opportunity to be employed closer to home and bring work back to the South Coast area. While hosting a student intern, an employer is giving the students the power and tools needed in order to be successful in the future. The objective for the GNBCAP is to provide a work experience that gives students the opportunity to expand knowledge gained in the classroom by applying it in a work setting.

If you are interested in hosting a student intern or would like more information, please contact Brenna Souza (508)999-5231 ext. 29 or bsouza@southcoastchamber.com

About the Connecting Activities Partnership
The Greater New Bedford Connecting Activities Partnership, a collaboration of the City of New Bedford Office of the Mayor, the Greater New Bedford Workforce Investment Board and Youth Council, Bristol Community College and The One SouthCoast Chamber, promotes the connecting of academic and workplace learning through Connecting Activities workplace internships. Area employers assist high school seniors to make more informed decisions about their future education and career choices. Currently, we service students at Dartmouth High School, Fairhaven High School, New Bedford High School, Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School and Old Rochester Regional High School. More information about the partnership is available at www.southcoastchamber.com or by calling (508) 999-5231.