Teamwork. Communication. Family. Hero.

Those are the words five teachers from Glynn and McIntosh County schools best summed up the culture and employee interactions they observed on day one of their Externship at OREMC. This was the fourth year OREMC has participated in the Connect Glynn Teacher Externship Program as a host site. The goal of the program is to connect classroom learning with workforce needs and skill sets.

Participating in this year’s program from Glynn County Schools were Lindy Helms from Sterling Elementary; Gisha Dudley from Brunswick High School and Eric Wetzel from Burroughs Molette Elementary. From McIntosh County were Teressa Simmons from Todd Grant Elementary and Heather Spannuth from McIntosh Middle School.

They began their day with an overview of the history of electric membership co-ops and the advantages of the cooperative form of business. The OREMC leadership team then met with the teachers to share their OREMC stories over their combined 200 years of service. Family and service to members and community were key touchstones of each leaders’ experience and commitment to OREMC.

Those messages were further enforced as the teachers toured the Nahunta headquarters and met with employees from various departments, learning about the specific skills, education/training and experience different jobs require. As Apparatus Technician Omar Garay was sharing his career journey, he explained he first wanted to join the Air Force and be a hero. When that didn’t quite go as planned, he got into linework, working for a contractor, but regularly dropped in the Kingsland office of OREMC to see if any job opportunities had opened up. Eventually one did and he hired on as a lineman, earning his Journeyman Certification.

His comment about wanting to be a hero came back around as the teachers went out into the field later in the afternoon to observe a line crew construct a new service. It was as they were watching the crew work on a “hot” line, and then energize the new line, that McIntosh Teacher Teressa Simmons commented, “Omar said earlier he wanted to be a hero. These guys are heros.”

What also impressed them, was the wide variety of jobs at OREMC, and the number of employees who began their careers as work-based learning students. All agreed their eyes were opened to the career opportunities that exist in their “own backyard” at OREMC; not all jobs require college degrees; and the growth potential each individual employee has once they become part of the OREMC family.