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Calhoun is first high school intern at FPUD

FALLBROOK – During the summer, Kate Calhoun, a junior at Fallbrook High, spent most Tuesday mornings at the Fallbrook Public Utility District as the district's first paid summer intern. Now that school is back in session, she is back in class and recently finished her final task for the district.

The final part of her eight-week internship was spent creating a PowerPoint presentation for the board of directors, shown at the Aug. 27 board meeting. In that presentation, she highlighted what she learned during her experience and how she will put that new knowledge to work.

"This introduced me to possible careers I was not aware of," Calhoun said.

The goal of the internship was to increase local interest in FPUD and potentially draw local talent to the district. The internship was designed to identify career opportunities in the water industry and provide a hands-on learning experience leading to potential career paths in Fallbrook. Currently, 17 percent of the district's employees are eligible for retirement.

Kyle Drake, an FPUD employee, grew up in Fallbrook, attended Fallbrook schools and has worked at the district for 33 years. He supervises the wastewater collection

department and said it's important to him to make a difference locally.

"It's great working where I was raised and my family has lived for 52 years," Drake said. "I'm grateful to be able to serve my own community."

Calhoun is specifically interested in accounting so part of her first day was spent in a budget meeting. Other days were spent with other departments including: public affairs, customer service, engineering, construction and maintenance, meter reading, water system operations, wastewater collections and the water reclamation treatment plant.

She said the experience was well worth her time.

"Interning at FPUD was an amazing learning experience for me," she said. "I didn't realize how many different operations were required to provide water to an entire community."

Submitted by Fallbrook Public Utility District.

 

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