Seven area individuals had the opportunity to gain insight and experience this summer thanks to the implementation of the Murray County Internship Program.
Justine Wettschreck, who helped coordinate the effort and also serves as the Murray County Economic Development Authority (EDA) Coordinator, said the program itself is run through Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council but funded by the county. “The Private Industry Council has done this program before, but this is the first year that Murray County has had this internship program,” Wettschreck said. “Murray County Commissioner Dave Thiner brought the idea to the attention of the county several years ago, but at the time, we didn’t have a funding mechanism for it.”
When the county received American Rescue Plan Act funds, Thiner again brought up the program, noting that Nobles County was using the ARPA funding mechanism for interns. The Murray County ARPA Committee and County Commissioners eventually dedicated $115,000 toward the new internship program.
The funds are slated to be utilized for 15 internship positions over a 3-year period. Once the decision was made to go forth with the program, the Murray County EDA and Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council worked together to match students and businesses. Wettschreck noted that there were no geological restraints to where the students could come from but that the businesses where the interns were placed had to be located in Murray County. “It’s been really helpful, not only for the internship in general, but looking at bringing people into our county for employment, which is a big deal,” she said.
The interns also have to be college students or high school students participating in postsecondary enrollment options (PSEO). “Out of the seven that we placed, a couple went to work at the hospital, which is county owned,” Wettschreck said. “And a couple were at the Sheriff’s Office. One student is working with a local electrician and another is in the health and human services field, so social work.”
Marcus Feit interned at the Murray County Sheriff’s Office this summer. “I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot,” Feit said. “My brother (Nick) is a Murray County Deputy, so I had a connection through him. They knew I was in school for law enforcement, so they reached out to me, knowing about that. It’s definitely helped solidify my decision to go into law enforcement.”
While Feit couldn’t write citations or actively go out on calls, he kept busy doing valuable work around the area. “They had me doing boat and water safety on Lake Shetek,” he said. “I did a lot of buoy patrolling. I would pick them up, fix them and put them back out. I’d also be stopping boats during the no-wake period when you couldn’t go over 5 miles per hour.”
Feit admitted that it was “awesome” to be working from a boat or jet ski most of the summer. After mastering his biggest challenge — backing up a trailer — things went pretty smoothly for him.
During his internship, Feit had the opportunity to ride along with deputies. The Minnesota West Community and Technical College student has one more academic year to complete but hopes to return to the area. “I’m really hoping to stay in Murray County,” Feit said.
Wettschreck said the county custom-tailored the program slightly, which allowed PSEO students and out-of-county individuals to potentially participate whereas some programs limit participation. “We decided to include those, to bring other people in and show them the county,” she said. “We have interns coming from Winona State, Bemidji State, Minnesota West, Southwest Minnesota State, so it’s not just in our backyard. It’s nice to be bringing more people into the county.”
Wettschreck also explained that the program is set up so that the county does not have to administrate the process and that interns are scheduled for 29 hours a week or less so they don’t qualify for benefits. Through the ARPA funding, the interns are paid up to $17 an hour, depending on the position. Intern Tanner Graphenteen actually worked a full 40 hours at Investor’s Choice Financial Services. “We’re only allowed 29 hours a week, but (Carla Goedtke) paid the rest.”
Graphenteen, who will be a sophomore at South Dakota State University this fall, said Goedtke reached out to him when she learned he was majoring in economics. “She told me about the opportunity and it sounded great,” he said. “It’s going pretty good and I’m learning a lot of new stuff. It’s been a great experience.”
Graphenteen has especially enjoyed helping review 401 plans and seeing how the process unfolds. “It’s interesting when you’re deciding what funds to keep and replace to make improvements, learning what makes one better than another one,” he said.
While he still has a couple weeks remaining of his internship, Graphenteen is already confident he’s chosen the right major. Retirement planning and other aspects of economics is something that interests him. “I’m glad I did this internship,” Graphenteen said. “This is not necessarily the exact work I might want to do in the future, but it’ll definitely be something to do with economics.”
With the high success of the first-year program, it’s likely that the commissioners will be looking for ways to finance internships in the future, once the initial funding is depleted. “Murray County is pleased with the results of the first year of the program and looking forwarding to more students participating in 2025,” Wettschreck said. “I don’t think the commissioners are interested in limiting the numbers, so we’ll have to budget for it. Ultimately, it comes down to whether it made a good impact on the county.”
