Wauneta college student gains community insight through state internship program

The Nebraska Community Foundation announced a new opportunity last November for community-based affiliated funds to connect with young people who have gone off to college by involving the students in hometown summer internships.
A hometown intern is required to be a current undergraduate college student who has completed at least one year of college and lives at home during the summer. Michaela Dukes of Wauneta was chosen as the 2023 Hometown Intern for the Wauneta Community Fund.
Dukes and her family have lived in Wauneta since 2012, and she graduated from Wauneta-Palisade in 2020.
She is currently working toward a degree in elementary education at Chadron State College.
Interns are asked to discover and document the assets of their hometown. They help facilitate conversations with community members regarding these assets and opportunities, and they co-create opportunities to mobilize these local assets to increase community quality of life.
Dukes jumped right into the program and got to work with several projects. One of those assignments was the Wauneta-Palisade Alumni Banquet, held on Saturday, May 25.
“I had the opportunity to help with this project. Taylor Dixon was in charge of getting it set up and putting things together. I helped with welcoming people who came in the door as well as overseeing that people signed in and received their name tags,” Dukes said. “There was a big turn out with many alumni in attendance. It was a very fun experience!”
Another community endeavor was the park project. Dukes said the Wauneta Community Foundation had a meeting back in May to talk about the town park and see what kind of updates could be accomplished.
“We painted new lines on our pickle ball court and added new nets. We also talked about getting good LED lighting set up at the pickle ball courts and sand volleyball court — which is still in progress,” she said.
Dukes added that the community pool needed a new refrigerator, and as she was the manager again this summer, she put in a request for a new one.
“Our fridge keeps all the snacks and waters that we sell cold, and the Foundation decided to give us a brand new one,” she added excitedly.
Dukes said she worked with Brenda Anderson on the “Wauneta Happenings” newsletter. It’s a small community monthly newspaper listing fun activities and important notices of things going on in Wauneta.
“It was fun to work on the paper, and I learned new things on different platforms on the computer,” she said.
Another project Dukes felt was important to consider was to use technology to update the community by putting an electronic board downtown.  The board is still in the works.
“We still need to find a board and a spot on which to put our board for people to view,” she said.
Dukes is now on the Wauneta Community Foundation board and will continue attending meetings and discussions. She said she will be helping with the projects they are still working on plus some new ones.
“With that, I will continue to work on it, and once the electronic board is up, I will add things each week announcing events so the community can see what is happening,” said Dukes.
In reflection
As a young adult who left Wauneta three years ago, now coming back and seeing the good sides and bad sides of Wauneta, Dukes says she wants to get involved and help her community.
“I feel this program has had a great impact on our community. When I got into this program, I wanted to help bring new life to the town. Also, as an education major working with kids, I wanted to get the young kids involved with the community so they could see how great Wauneta is,” said Dukes.
She is fully behind this program because she believes it is of good benefit to the community. She explained how it gets the intern involved with the community so they can experience things that are never usually seen.
“By going to meetings and hearing other people’s ideas and the events they want to try, this program gives you another set of eyes on how to see our community more clearly,” she added.
“I personally gained from this experience and saw how the community of Wauneta is so helpful and giving. Our community always supports other businesses and people. I also worked with many people I never thought I’d be working with, and it gave me a good feeling to help people and work together to make our community better,” she continued.
She said there were a few bumps in the road during her internship. She was the manager for the Wauneta Pool and they didn’t have many lifeguards this year. She was tasked to work at the pool every single day to keep it open. While working, she would take her internship materials to work on in the pool office.
“It was a little stressful, but I got things done,” she said.
This fall, Dukes will be working at Wauneta-Palisade schools as a para for kindergarten. While working, she will be taking online classes through Chadron State College to get her education degree.
Nebraska Community
Foundation program
The NCF board and staff members ran a highly successful pilot program in Nebraska City last summer and has encouraged other communities to help move this “bring them back home” initiative forward.  The NCF board of directors are partnering with affiliated funds to offer college students a paid internship to serve their hometown communities during their summer break.
In a statement made by NCF, toward the end of 2022, Nebraska had 58,000 unfilled jobs. Today, attracting people is the first priority for all of Nebraska, and the best way to attract people is by cultivating relationships with young adults who already have friends and families in our hometowns and may be interested in returning sometime in the future.
NCF is connecting hometown interns and affiliated fund champions to learn from and share with one another.
Involving hometown interns with these types of projects can create deeper connections between communities and their young people who are attending college.