University of Southern Maine

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MEMIC, USM Name First Workplace Safety Internship Winners
Two students will spend summer working with MEMIC customers on safety issues

June 10, 2005

PORTLAND, ME--At its annual meeting on June 13, Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company (MEMIC) named James McLean, of Rumford, and Jaime Cone, of Shelburne, New Hampshire, as the first two recipients of a new summer internship for University of Southern Maine (USM) undergraduates interested in learning how to solve safety problems common to workplaces.

Funded by MEMIC through a partnership with USM's School of Applied Science, Engineering, and Technology (ASET), the 12-week internship program fills an important Maine business need: preparing future health and safety professionals with the most advanced, hands-on training possible to create safer, more productive workplaces.

McLean, 25, a 1998 graduate of Mountain Valley High School, will be paired with MEMIC customer Barber Foods in Portland. Under the guidance of Barber personnel and MEMIC safety specialists, he will help analyze the safety of all facility jobs including food processors, loading dock workers, and maintenance technicians. This analysis will help in creating improved safety programs and lay the groundwork for future safety inspections.

McLean is a senior expected to graduate later this year with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial technology.

Cone, 26, and a 1997 Berlin High School graduate, will spend her weeks putting classroom theory into practice at Bowdoin College, another MEMIC customer, in Brunswick. Her assignment will include tackling issues detected during an ergonomic study of housekeeping, clarifying safety responsibilities of supervisors, and updating campus-wide safety procedures such as disaster planning and evacuation.

A junior at USM, Cone is majoring in environmental science with a concentration in safety and health.

The internships are part of a broader effort by MEMIC and USM to make workplaces safer by bettering learning opportunities. Other plans include launching a MEMIC-funded certificate program in ergonomics through ASET's Department of External Programs and MEMIC's donation of a cutting-edge lumbar motion monitor that measures muscle stress to the UniversityÕs ergonomic laboratory. The monitor also will be available for use by MEMIC with its customers.

"These students have a chance this summer to learn a great deal about strategies to reduce workplace injuries," said MEMIC President and CEO John T. Leonard. "The internship program will benefit USM students, our customers, and Maine's economy for many years to come."

"Internships provide a wonderful opportunity for USM students to take the theories they learn in class and apply them to real-world challenges and to receive the critical experience they need for future employment," said ASET Dean John Wright. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with MEMIC, not only to provide our students with valuable exposure to today's issues of workplace safety, but also to work in partnership with MEMIC in strengthening Maine businesses."

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