Interns and Alumni

An avid outdoorsman, Cassidy Beaudin is keen to turn his Water First Internship experience into a job as a treatment plant operator. “Water is the key to life, I’ve always known how important it is,” he said. “And I really like being part of making clean water.”

After graduating high school last year, Cassidy completed one semester of the Environmental Technician program at Canadore College but found the course wasn’t exactly what he was looking for. He returned to the Island, spent some time working construction, and applied to the Water First Internship as soon as he found out about it. “It’s a good career,” he said. “My uncle is a water treatment plant operator in North Bay.”

Cassidy has taken to the everyday tasks that are part of the job, from sampling to tapping into water lines to cleaning out holding tanks, and he sees a future for himself in the field.

Cassidy obtained his Operator-In-Training certification for both water and wastewater treatment as well as his Water Quality Analyst through the Internship.

The Water First Internship has given Chelsea a chance to work in her home community (the most remote on Manitoulin Island).

Chelsea is currently the project coordinator for Swim Drink Fish Canada in her home community, a position she wouldn’t have been able to obtain without the experience she gained during the internship. For that reason, she believes the Water First Internship model will transfer well to other First Nations communities, especially those even more remote than Zhiibaahaasing.

“I wanna make sure that my children & grandchildren have healthy water if that means that I have to track it to the source that that’s what I will do.”

Chris saw the Water First Internship as a chance to learn valuable skills and lay the groundwork for a career in his home community. Chris was hired by Aundeck Omni Kaning (AOK) after the internship and is now working as an OIT at the local water treatment plant.

Initially overwhelmed at the amount of information involved in testing water, twelve weeks in Chris started to feel comfortable with the work. “It’s really great to get so much hands-on experience,” he said. “For me, hands-on is so much easier to learn.”

“I like it because it’s environmentally based,” he said. “As I’m getting older I’m starting to think about the generations that are coming. This is important work.”

When I didn’t finish college, I was looking for something to do and wasn’t sure what I wanted my career to look like. I wasn’t interested in the program I was taking, and when I saw a post about the internship on Facebook, I thought I might like working with and providing safe drinking water.

I want to do this for the communities that don’t have clean and safe drinking water, but I am also doing this for myself, to gain experience. I want to work in the mines after this.

I have enjoyed everything about the internship so far. Meeting new friends and having a trip every month is like an escape from my real life at home, and it makes me feel happy to have good friends to work with.