Empowering the Community

By Minal Abhange

Even as he stepped into his dream job at Newfoundland Power, one of Canada’s top utility companies, Travis Martin says he could never have predicted the turns his career had taken to get him there.

“I know how important community is, and I have always lived in an area where the community helped each other out, so I just wanted to give back.”

He says working with Newfoundland Power’s takeCHARGE! initiative acted as the perfect platform to connect with the community.

Travis graduated from College of North Atlantic (CNA) with a Business diploma in 2008. He further specialized in Human Resource Management, but he was not ready to stop there. Transferring credits to Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), he graduated with a Bachelors in Business Administration in 2013.

“I was really blessed. I went to college in Clarenville, my home community. I had a lot of free time, helping me to get involved with the student council. I spent a year as the president of the Student Council – it was just an amazing experience,” says Travis.

Talking about his college journey, Travis recalls, “It was indeed one of the biggest stepping stones of my life. Like others, I was never afraid of reaching out for opportunities, which set me apart from others. I was always involved with the college. This helped boost my confidence and network to establish some amazing relationships which further led to shape my professional career.

“I was fortunate enough to really build a network of people in the community, this gave me a good advantage when I applied for jobs. At this point, although I wasn’t sure what I really wanted, I was motivated to take chances.”

For as long as he remembers, Travis says he has taken several different paths, not necessarily by design, but by the opportunities that presented themselves.

“I was eager to make it a learning experience than miss the opportunity.”

Travis worked in the human resources department straight after finishing his business diploma, where he had the chance to oversee a lot of recruiting initiatives. Next, he had the opportunity to work for the provincial government as a policy planning and research analyst. Following this, he ventured into the banking sector as a customer service manager.

“Today all those paths contribute to my success,” he says. “All these roles were instrumental in helping me define that I did not want to be stuck behind a desk all day. I wanted to be out there in the community.”

It was an unexpected journey, but one that brought him a step closer to serving the community and his “dream job” – Supervisor of Customer Service at Newfoundland Power.

“I am in the community with a lot of opportunities for personal, professional growth, plus the added advantage is exposure to technical, operational areas that I would not get typically in a business role,” he says.“Working in the Clarenville area, I am responsible for the community outreach, environmental programs. I work closely to organize hands-on workshops in the area to educate the community on energy rebates, efficient products, the different sustainable solutions they can pursue to lower energy costs. I find this puts me in the community and in touch with different stakeholders, retailers, installers, leaders in the regional and municipal governments, which I love about my job.”

Despite the demanding work schedule, Travis strives to live a balanced life, and connecting with the community is part of that. He has been working closely with residents through several takeCHARGE! initiatives to educate and empower the community, to help reduce energy costs, as well as understand efficient resources and use them wisely.

That notion of giving back is extremely important to Travis, which is evident in his volunteer efforts with the Candlelighters Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. To find out more about the business programs at CNA visit www.cna.nl.ca.