Young Workers in Windham County: Guest Post by Lindsay Rose

Lindsay Rose
Recent Graduate
Vermont Yankee Employee

Good evening commissioners,

My name is Lindsay Rose, and I would like to first thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you this evening. I’m from Hinsdale, New Hampshire and graduated from UNH in 2010. About a year after I graduated I got a job at Vermont Yankee where I found an exciting opportunity, a well-paying job, and a company with good community values.

It’s a fact that the demographics in Windham County are changing. From 2000 to 2010, the number of older workers, or the baby boomer generation, increased, but the number of young workers, aged 25 to 44, declined.  Basically Windham County’s future workforce is leaving.

Vermont’s future workforce will be looking for opportunity: A steady job, a well-paying job, a company that gives back to their community, and an industry that’s contributing to the overall good and health of our country. VY provides these jobs: more than 600 of them. It was ranked among the Best Places to Work for the last three years in a row by Vermont Business Magazine; VY management encourages volunteerism in our communities; and the nuclear energy industry is contributing to a clean, safe, reliable energy future.

Vermont Yankee is a company that brings professionals to Vermont. These professionals include recent graduates like me, and our country’s military veterans with nuclear experience who are ready to bring their skills and experiences to Vermont. Vermont Yankee is an essential economic driver and is a business that provides career opportunities that keep people in Vermont.

At Vermont Yankee I have a steady, well-paying job, I’m encouraged to learn and take on new activities and experiences, and I’m given opportunities to help the community by participating in VY’s many volunteer activities. This year I joined my co-workers and helped remodel the Brattleboro Drop In Center, I’m supporting Project Feed the Thousands, and I have begun volunteering for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

I’ve chosen to stay in the area specifically because of my job at Vermont Yankee and I enjoy living in the area. The opportunities that I’ve described are what keep me working at VY, and are what keep me in the area. If I didn’t have these opportunities at Vermont Yankee, I would find them elsewhere. This is a great place to live if you have a good job, but I couldn’t live here without one. Thank you for considering my comments.

----------

This is the second in a series of posts which share statements made in favor of Vermont Yankee at the Public Service Board hearing on November 7, 2012.

Ms. Rose spoke on behalf of herself as a personal statement.