Ty Edwards (pictured) and Jace Timmer, as well as Jordan Rock of Prince Albert, were among the winners of this year's annual Green Dream Bloggers student internship contest. (Submitted photo/Ty Edwards)

By Josh Ryan

Scholarship Winners

Sask. student bloggers win summer intern contest

Jul 2, 2020 | 5:46 PM

Saskatchewan is well represented among this year’s Green Dream Bloggers, winners of the Forest Products Association of Canada’s (FPAC) summer internship contest.

Jace Timmer and Ty Edwards of Meadow Lake and Jordan Rock of Prince Albert were among the 11 winners of the nationwide program. Green Dreams Bloggers has run since 2013 as a way to help students working in the forest products sector by providing opportunities to promote their work experience in forests and mills during the summer. Each student selected will receive a scholarship towards their ongoing education, as they blog about their experiences working within the industry.

In a media release, FPAC President and CEO Derek Nighbor said they were happy to see the interest in the program this year from both forestry companies and summer interns, despite serious challenges posed by COVID-19.

“The Green Dream Bloggers program not only provides development opportunities for young Canadians and raises awareness of the different jobs in our industry,” Nighbor said. “But it also showcases in real time how we are sustainably managing our forests and the innovative and environmentally-friendly products being manufactured at Canadian mills.”

Each of the Saskatchewan winners are working for Tolko Forest Products. Jace Timer, business student and volleyball athlete at Mount Royal University, said it was rewarding to learn the news after putting a lot of time into his application.

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“I wasn’t sure how many people had applied, so I was excited to start on my blog,” Timmer said.

Being from the area, getting to work close to home was an exciting opportunity for Timmer.

“Having a summer position there is really the best summer position you can get, especially when it has something to do with your schooling,” he said. “Which is what was really important to me.”

Ty Edwards said he has thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the past two summers. While he continues to share lessons from the job, Edwards has relished in providing humour, after he realized he could inject more personality into the blog.

“I get to branch out and say the things I want to say,” Edwards said. “I record the stuff that I learn here, but I really like making people laugh and I’m really glad I get to that too.”

Edwards is working to get his engineering degree at the University of Alberta and looking forward to continuing his work at Tolko next summer.

“I’m getting lots of experience in the field,” he said. “And frankly, I quite enjoy hanging out with some of the people here and learning about the electrical side of the mill.”

The blogs are posted bi-weekly throughout the summer at thegreenestworkforce.ca.

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports