As August begins, my very short but enjoyable blogging career is coming to an end. If someone would have asked me what I would be doing during my work term for Tolko, writing blog posts on the side would not have been anywhere close to the top 100 things I would have thought of. Even though this internship was very unexpected, working with FPAC and Tolko to create these blog posts has been a wonderful experience. Before this whole blogging internship started, I had practically no experience writing blog posts, and therefore this internship has really benefited me by forcing me to learn how to write in a blog style. Writing the different blog posts has also forced me to look back at the experience and knowledge I have gained thus far from working for Tolko and convey why I think others might enjoy working for them too.
Along with forcing me to improve my writing skills, by joining the internship program I have also been able to make a bunch of great connections which can be very beneficial in the future. The more I work in the forest industry, the more I am beginning to realize just how important connections are for future opportunities. Having connections in a variety of companies can be very useful because if you are ever searching for a job or just wondering how that specific industry is doing, you have a preexisting relationship that you can use to your benefit.
Classes start back up in the beginning of September, so my time living in Slave Lake and working for Tolko are coming to an end as well. I will soon return to the busyness of Vancouver and try to get back into the university mindset. Vancouver is a beautiful city, but I’m a small-town person at heart, and therefore Vancouver is not my preferred location for living. Even though Vancouver is not where I want to live, it definitely has better restaurants than Slave Lake, so I can’t complain too much. I am also excited to get back to classes that are in-person rather than online and apply some of the knowledge that I have gained from working in the industry to class.
As a final closing I would like to mention some different people who have made this work experience very enjoyable. Cheryl, Leila, Greg, and the whole Lab/Technical department at Tolko have been awesome to work with. They have all been very welcoming and did a great job of training and explaining the process to me as I learned and worked in the various areas. Last of all, Justin and Kerry from FPAC have created an awesome internship program that I highly recommend to any young forest professionals who want to share their experiences they have had working in the forest industry.
Have a great rest of your summer and I hope to do this again next year!
Ian Penninga
Enjoy a photo dump of some of my favorite photos from this work term!
