Iowa Lakes Corridor News & Events

News & Events

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

By: Laura Nielsen Kailye Hromatko is the Wealth Management Intern at Bank Midwest for the summer. After applying for a general internship at Bank Midwest, they decided to place her in the wealth management position, likely due to the Applied Math and Business Management degrees she is earning at Grand View University in Des Moines. Hromatko is originally from Milford and graduated from Okoboji High School in 2016, so the internship at Bank Midwest’s Okoboji branch was a perfect fit. In her role, Hromatko is helping the bank transition into its new system, saying “I do a lot of updating and uploadin...

Intern Spotlight: Lauren Laven

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

By: Laura Nielsen Lauren Laven first attended the University of Iowa planning to major in music. However, like many first-year college students, she decided that wasn’t for her and found herself enrolling in business classes. Now majoring in Marketing with a minor in Music, the 2017 graduate of Spirit Lake High School is the Marketing Intern at Bank Midwest of Spirit Lake. Last summer, Laven worked as a teller at Bank Midwest’s Okoboji branch where she thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere as well as the people who work there. She reached out again this summer with hopes of equally enjoying an internship position...

Intern Spotlight: Cassy Olesen

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

By: Laura Nielsen Cassy Olesen is currently the summer intern for Spencer Radio Group. She is majoring in Journalism and Mass Communications at Iowa State University with a minor in Entrepreneurship. Olesen is originally from Graettinger, Iowa, where she graduated from the Graettinger-Terril school district in 2016. Olesen secured this position after calling the radio station to see if they had interest in a summer intern. “I grew up listening to this station and always thought they did a good job covering the area, so I knew I’d like to work here.” She also stated that she had an internship at ...

Intern Spotlight: Brock Jungjohan

Tuesday, July 09, 2019

By: Laura Nielsen Brock Jungjohan, a 2018 graduate from Spirit Lake High School, is the Marketing Intern at annLeo. Located in Milford, annLeo helps healthcare facilities get the staff they need by being a single point of contact between healthcare locations and multiple medical staffing agencies. Jungjohan is a rising sophomore at the University of Iowa, where he studies Psychology and Enterprise Leadership. When asked what types of classes an Enterprise Leadership major entails he responded, “It’s mostly entrepreneurial classes with some general business, too.” Jungjohan knows Steve Heeg, CEO of GrapeTree Medical Staffing, through his parents, so he used that connectio...

Intern Spotlight: Luke Thompson

Tuesday, July 02, 2019

By: Laura Nielsen Luke Thompson, a 2018 graduate of Okoboji High School, is a mechanical engineer intern for the summer at 966 Industries, located in Milford. He just finished up his first year at South Dakota State University where he studies mechanical engineering. 966 Industries is a new and quickly growing manufacturing and automation company, and they were originally not looking for an intern when Thompson approached the owner, Kevin Frodermann. “I asked a family friend of ours who works there if they were looking for any interns, and he referred me to Kevin and said I should just ask and se...

Intern Spotlight: Rachel Harmon

Friday, June 28, 2019

By: Laura Nielsen Rachel Harmon is the Marketing Solutions Intern at Blink Marketing this summer. She is studying Graphic Design at South Dakota State University. Having graduated from Okoboji High School in 2017, Harmon said she landed this position because she reached out to local marketing agencies: “When I was thinking about coming home for the summer, I researched agencies in the area and then sent them all an email asking if they’d be interested in having an intern for the summer.” She also stated that finding an internship in your major can be difficult in this area, so she wa...

Intern Spotlight: Blake Carlson

Friday, August 24, 2018

Blake Carlson, a 2016 Spencer High School Graduate, is a marketing and operations intern for Community Insurance this summer. A junior at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, Carlson studies public relations with a double minor in theatre and entrepreneurship. “I became interested in this position after an opportunity fell in my lap,” Carlson explained. “I was interested in learning more about business, and it also gave me an opportunity to return to the area and enjoy everything that Northwest Iowa has to offer.” He hopes to gain a deeper understanding of professional development, noting, “If nothing else, it is more about developin...

Intern Spotlight: Zach Renken

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Zach Renken is a marketing intern with Bank Midwest in Spirit Lake. Renken will be a sophomore at the University of South Dakota where he has a marketing major and a finance minor. Advice from a mentor led him to apply for several positions with different banks. “I dropped my resume off at a few banks in the area, and it didn’t really get anywhere,” Renken said. “I reached out to a connection I had with Bank Midwest, and they helped me out." Additionally, his position gave him a more thorough understanding of the marketing field. "I didn’t think that marketing wa...

Intern Spotlight: Lupe Tapia

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Lupe Tapia is the Human Resources Intern for Quality Refrigerated Services in Spencer. Originally from Harris, Iowa, Tapia will study Human Resources at Iowa Lakes Community College. While scrolling through social media, the job caught her eye. “It popped up on my Facebook page that there was an opening,” Tapia said. “They were looking for someone bilingual who would be willing to train, so I decided to apply. I wanted something where I could use both my English and Spanish, so it was a perfect position.” Because her position started a few weeks ago, she is still figuring out company culture i...

Intern Spotlight: Kaitlyn Hill

Thursday, August 09, 2018

Kaitlyn Hill is a Project Management Office intern at Rembrandt Foods. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Hill is a senior at Iowa State University where she studies agricultural business and economics. While scrolling through online job boards, the position with Rembrandt caught Hill’s eye. “I found them on the CyHire Website at Iowa State and applied having no idea what Rembrandt was or what they did,” she admitted. “I saw the logo, and I knew that they worked with eggs which I really liked. I also saw that they were in Spirit Lake, and I had never been up here so ...

Intern Spotlight: Jenny Klenken

Thursday, August 02, 2018

Jenny Klenken, a 2015 graduate of Spencer High School, is an intern with Williams & Company, P.C. this summer. Her position is supported through the Spencer Area Jobs Trust Internship Program. Klenken will be a senior at the University of Northern Iowa in the fall where she studies accounting and finance. “It was kind of word of mouth in Spencer,” she admitted when asked how she found the position. “I was looking at internships in the Des Moines area and wasn’t finding what I was looking for. I was on the UNI job board one day, and this position came up...

Intern Spotlight: Daylain Bastman

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Daylain Bastman of Greenville is working as the intern for Quail Construction this summer, a position supported by the Spencer Area Jobs Trust Internship Program. In the fall Bastman, a graduate of Spencer High School, will be a senior at Iowa State University where he studies industrial technology. His interest in the position stemmed from a relationship with the owners of Quail Construction. “I actually know Joe and Anne [Quail] and they brought it to my attention and emailed me when I was down at Iowa State,” he explained. “I applied for the position, and it went from there.” “I like th...

Intern Spotlight: Claire Netten

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Claire Netten of Ankeny, Iowa is the intern with Blink Marketing in Milford. In the fall, Netten will be a senior at the University of Northern Iowa. She is a marketing major with an emphasis in advertising and digital media and a minor in business communication. “I wanted to find an internship where I could get a lot of first-hand experience” she explained when asked about her interest in finding a position for the summer, adding, “My family comes to Okoboji every summer, so I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to work in the lakes area because ...

Intern Spotlight: Allison Carlon

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Allison Carlon of Fort Dodge is the Accounting Intern, for Iowa Lakes Regional Water this summer. A rising junior at Buena Vista University, Carlon majors in business and accounting. When asked how she discovered the position, Carlon said, “It was presented to me as an opportunity through our Career and Personal Development Office at school. I really wanted to start getting some internship experience so that I can build up my resume.” She is excited to gain knowledge about how to apply accounting in an actual business setting. “In class, it's kind of hard to see how it is going to wor...

Intern Spotlight: Mary Horger

Thursday, July 05, 2018

Mary Horger, a senior at Iowa State University, is working as a Quality Assurance Intern for Rembrandt Foods this summer. At Iowa State, Horger studies microbiology and has a minor in food safety. Not knowing anything about Rembrandt before applying, she found their booth at a career fair. “A lot of recruiters come to Iowa State for the career fair, and Rembrandt was at one and I turned in my resume as a long shot. I got the job from there,” said Horger. Even without prior experience with the company, she applied for positions hoping to gain background in quality assurance goin...

Intern Spotlight: Maddie Schwenneker

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Spencer native Maddie Schwenneker is the Marketing Intern for the Clay County Fair. An Iowa State University senior, Schwenneker is majoring in communications with a Spanish minor and a business emphasis. After her mother found the internship online and suggested she apply, Schwenneker dug a little deeper into the specific responsibilities and decided it was something she wanted to try. She was attracted to the position thanks to a desire to learn more about the field and a lifelong love of the Clay County Fair. “I was interested in applying because it’s marketing and communications so that’s obviously what I a...

Intern Spotlight: Gracie Vatthauer

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Gracie Vatthauer is the intern for Newsradio 1240 KICD, Big Country 107.7 & MORE 104.9, a position supported by the Spencer Area Jobs Trust Internship Program. Hailing from Wheaton, Minnesota, Vatthauer will be a junior at Iowa State University in the fall, where she majors in agricultural communications and has a minor in international agriculture. When asked how she discovered the program, Vatthauer recalls going to work with her father in Northwest Iowa last spring and meeting representatives from the radio station who encouraged her to apply. The part of her job that she is most looking forward to is attending 1...

Intern spotlight: Landon Louscher, Farmers Bank

Thursday, June 07, 2018

Landon Louscher is the Marketing Associate Intern at Farmers Bank in Spencer, an opportunity supported by the Spencer Area Jobs Trust program. Louscher is from Paullina, Iowa, where he has lived his whole life. He attends Iowa State University and will be a senior in the fall. After taking a marketing class last year, Louscher decided to add a marketing major to his management major. A desire to stay in Northwest Iowa and his newfound passion for marketing inspired him to apply for this position which he saw posted on the Iowa State online job board, CyHire. The process went ver...

Fast Facts About Iowa Lakes

Employment Opportunity

The Corridor offers career opportunities in the key industries of agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and health services.

Employment-new

Trails, trails and trails. . .

There are more than 200 miles of trails throughout the Iowa Lakes Corridor region for the cyclists, runners, walkers, cross country skiers and snowmobilers.

Trails-new

Low cost of living and affordable housing...

The cost of living and housing prices in the Iowa Lakes Corridor are below the US averages.

Affordability-new

Healthy Income

Median household incomes in Dickinson Country are greater than the Iowa and nation median incomes. Clay, Buena Vista and Emmet Counties have median household incomes ranging from $44,556 to $50,289.

Household Income-new

After 5 p.m. you are on vacation!

The Iowa Lakes Corridor offers balance in life. Spend time with loved ones, meet career objectives, and enjoy scenic commutes, excellent schools, safe communities and endless recreational opportunities.

Life-new

Highway improvements...

Safe and efficient highways are throughout the region for commercial, resident and tourist traffic. Recently improved roads include Iowa 86 and 9, and US 20 and 71.

Highway 86-new

News & Events

News & Events

Fast Facts About Iowa Lakes

Employment Opportunity

Trails, trails and trails. . .

Low cost of living and affordable housing...

Healthy Income

After 5 p.m. you are on vacation!

Highway improvements...

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