Meet our 2018 Summer Interns - Courtney Bronson

We are excited to have five interns join us this year. They will be an important part of several special projects this summer. We'll feature each one here, so you can get to know them. Please welcome them to the team!

Name: Courtney Bronson

Hometown: Shoreham, Vermont

Where do you attend college and what do you study?
I graduated from Vermont Technical College in May with an Associate Degree in Agribusiness Management and Technology. This fall I will be a Junior attending Champlain College in their Bachelor’s in Accounting program.

How did you hear about Yankee Farm Credit?
I had known of Yankee because my mom works in the Middlebury office as a credit analyst, but before she started working here I had heard of them through my Sustainable Agriculture class at the Hannaford Career Center. In class we had talked about the many aspects of the Agriculture world and the career opportunities that are available besides the typical “farmer” that everyone thinks of. In the course of our discussion financing your business and the different careers in that area came up and we talked about businesses in Middlebury that lend specifically to the Agriculture world including FSA, VACC, and Yankee.

What branch and department do you work in? Do you have any specific projects?

I am  working in the Middlebury branch and am currently working in both the Financial Related Services (FRS) and Credit departments. In credit I have been helping with loan document catch-up on the backlog from the beginning of the year and verifying that loan documents are correct. For FRS, I compiled a master list of clients with names and addresses and also created a complete list of 2017 tax returns that were prepared by Yankee.

What do you hope to get out of your internship that you may not get from a traditional classroom?

I hope to get some real-world experience working on computer software and entering real data into programs used by businesses, and having the chance to see how their database works. In the classroom, I only get the chance to enter fake data from a book into trial software or the software used is designed just for learning/teaching purposes and isn’t used by companies to conduct their everyday business. Technology is such a large part of a world today that the knowledge I can gain from working with the different programs Yankee uses is something I could never get from a classroom.  I also have already gotten the chance to see how the loan process works through multiple stages and how much internal work gets done so the parts can come together to get the loan booked.

What do you hope to do after you graduate?

After I graduate from Champlain I plan to stay in Addison County and find an Agribusiness job; hopefully in financial services. I hope to continue showing my horses on both the local and regional level and maybe one day at the national level. I also plan to become a 4H leader in the near future, most likely for my old 4H club, and help educate kids and provide them with some of the amazing opportunities that were given to me. 

For more information on internship opportunities,

contact Ruchel St. Hilaire, at rsthilaire@yankeefarmcredit.com or 800-639-3053

Meet our 2018 Summer Interns - Kisa Nop

We are excited to have five interns join us this year. They will be an important part of several special projects this summer. We'll feature each one here, so you can get to know them. Please welcome them to the team!

Name: Kisa Nop

Hometown: Salisbury, Vermont

Where do you attend college and what do you study?
Dordt College (Iowa), I am a senior studying Business Administration: Human Resource Management with a minor in Spanish.

How did you hear about Yankee Farm Credit?
My dad worked at Yankee Farm Credit as an intern and as Loan Officer in the Farm Credit system before he went back into farming. 

What branch and department do you work in? Do you have any specific projects?
I am working in Middlebury in the Human Resources department (if this is an official department). I have been working on surveying Yankee on Employee Engagement and working with our new job descriptions.

What do you hope to get out of your internship that you may not get from a traditional classroom?

I hope to get hands on experience, learn from people who are actively practicing HR and business, and responsibility for my work, without responsibility it is hard to take ownership and be engaged with what you are doing.

What do you hope to do after you graduate?

Graduation is coming up quickly, and I would like to travel a little bit and work in the training area of HR. I enjoy interacting with people and helping them be successful!

For more information on internship opportunities,

contact Ruchel St. Hilaire, at rsthilaire@yankeefarmcredit.com or 800-639-3053

Meet our 2018 Summer Interns - Christian Parenti

We are excited to have five interns join us this year. They will be an important part of several special projects this summer. We'll feature each one here, so you can get to know them. Please welcome them to the team!

Name: Christian Parenti 

Hometown: Orford, NH

Where do you attend college and what do you study? 

Drew University, majoring in business and minoring in computer science, about to start senior year.

How did you hear about Yankee Farm Credit?

My Father is a forester for a local lumber company and has connections with Yankee, he heard they were offering internships so I applied and got in!

What branch and department do you work in? Do you have any specific projects? 

I am working out of the Derby branch and the White River branch. One of my main projects is working on the 2017 MyFarm Report with Yankee's business consultant Joanna Lidback.

What do you hope to get out of your internship that you may not get from a traditional classroom?

At Yankee I have found an incredibly personal experience combined with doing work that matters to the company and its clients, something you can’t get out of a classroom.

What do you hope to do after you graduate?

I’m keeping my options open but I am looking for a career in finance.

For more information on internship opportunities,

contact Ruchel St. Hilaire, at rsthilaire@yankeefarmcredit.com or 800-639-3053

Collaboration in the Vermont Forest Industry

-Josh Lagerquist

The 1st Annual Vermont Forest Industry Summit was recently held with the goal of increasing the level of collaboration and strengthening communication between individuals and businesses within the Vermont timber industry. Approximately 150 foresters, loggers, saw mill operators, land owners and other industry professionals gathered at Burke Mountain in East Burke, VT on Thursday June 28^th and  Friday June 29^th. Discussions regarding the viability of local wood production and consumption as well as the innovative practices going on in the forest industry are just two examples of some of the topics that were covered. Governor Phil Scott was also in attendance to sign two bills which positively impacted the forestry industry. 

            Key takeaways from this summit were that there is a large need for public education surrounding the concept of forest management. The goal is that this would improve the broad public perception of the industry as a whole. There is also a strong desire for greater communication between local wood producers and consumers with the intent of keeping more Vermont wood within the state. Overall, this was a very impressive summit that did a great job fostering conversations with many industry leaders who will continue to drive the success of Vermont’s forestry industry. The continuation of this event is most certainly something that many will be looking forward to in the following years.

For more information on Yankee's Appraisal and Financial Services for Wood and Timber lots, email Info@yankeefarmcredit.com or call 1-800-639-3053.