The mission at Lake Stewards of Maine is simple: to protect Maine’s lakes and promote stewardship via a monitoring program. However, developing the business and policy for making this mission successful is not as simple. As a nonprofit, this organization faces different challenges from your everyday for-profit firms. Hence, a primary concern at LSM is to raise funds locally and on a federal level to keep operations running.
As a student of Economics, such a challenge immediately fascinated me. Having taken various courses dealing with business administration, economic analysis, and economic policy, the tools I needed to make this internship a success were already there. Furthermore, I am deeply interested in government policy and legal developments. Hence, I familiarized myself with Maine’s local and statewide policies before the internship.
My work for LSM involved research on economic markets, policy on the federal, state, and municipal level, property lines and value, and building a case supporting LSM for national and local grants. I studied the value of both lakefront and inland property in Maine. Upon doing so, I compared the variance in pricing, tax, and commission on lakefront properties concerning the degradation levels of their respective lakes. Using this research, I built a case and pitch for LSM to businesses benefiting from lakefront properties. I also researched various federal grant opportunities to determine which could be a good fit for LSM. I contacted respective federal government employees to learn about the legalities and positioning of said grants. Lastly, I spoke to and met with contacts at the Department of Environmental Protection to talk about politics, government, and policy within Maine.
Many successes and challenges awaited me on the road to accomplishing my work. However, the biggest highlight was a research project on statewide ordinances. I researched ordinances regarding a particular policy throughout various municipalities and towns in Maine. Then, I had to formulate a paper highlighting which areas have more robust policies than the state regulations and which areas only meet them. Additionally, I had to research how areas with stronger policies had them developed. I contacted various people within the DEP and the State of Maine to compile my research. I thoroughly enjoyed getting hands-on experience with local policy and their amendments. It truly puts into perspective how precise legal work is and how explicit any development related to government has to be.
Heading into this internship, I aimed to learn about business administration, government policy, and the economic impact of various statewide issues. In the case of LSM, it was environmental health issues and the successful operations of their nonprofit. This aforementioned work, and many additional tasks, allowed LSM to determine goals and set up business operations for the coming months. Among my more prominent takeaways from his position is that there are various businesses, both small and large, both profit and nonprofit, on the front of each political issue. A myriad of tasks need to be done to continue the operations of said businesses, and it is imperative to each firm that local and federal policy is in their best interest.
I sincerely thank Mr. Garvin Brown for the funds (via the Susan Casey Brown Fund) that made this internship achievable. This award allowed me to travel to and around Maine and experience everything hands-on. Thank you to the McGill International Experience Awards founders, and Mr. Brown for making this experience possible.
