ReMA’s Pathways Program Places Talented Students at ReMA Companies

Two years ago, Megan Potthoff, then a senior at Norwin High School in North Huntingdon, PA, traveled to Las Vegas, NV for the ReMA 2024 Convention and Exposition with her classmates Emily Arendas and Heather Smarick. Potthoff and her classmates were able to attend the ReMA convention because they were the 2023-2024 Youth Recycling Award contest winners, an annual contest from ReMA and JASON Learning.

It was through participating in the contest that Potthoff learned about ReMA’s Pathways Program, which offers paid fellowship and internship opportunities for current and recent graduates. As Pathway participants, students are immersed in career opportunities in the recycled materials industry at one of ReMA’s member companies.

Now in college at the University of Pittsburgh, Potthoff spent the summer of her freshman year interning at Michael Brothers Companies in Pittsburgh, PA as the company’s business support intern.

“It was great to work on marketing projects as well as a variety of aspects of the business” she said. I felt very welcomed and had a lot of freedom and could give my own input on what I wanted to work on.”

Boyd Jones, Director of Business Development & Public Relations at Michael Brothers Companies, was Potthoff’s supervisor during her internship. He had learned about the Pathways Program during the 2025 ReMA Winter Fly-In and knew the program would be a good fit for his company.

“Megan got a broad look at what our type of business does through the projects she worked on from customer service to marketing and social media,” he said. “She answered phones and spoke to customers and worked on marketing and social media projects. Her penultimate project at the end of the summer was helping our company’s nonprofit prepare for the annual golf outing. Because of her participation in the ReMA and JASON Learning contest in high school, she came into her internship with a recycling mindset.”

The Pathways Program is designed to provide ReMA members with another resource to attract talent, fill workforce needs and critical competency gaps, and raise awareness about recycled materials careers. Vetted candidates are matched with ReMA members based on their interests, skills, location, and availability.

Pathways Program participant Sarim Faheem spent his summer internship working with Benicia, CA-based Bay Area Compliance on several projects that aligned with his field of study in public health. Faheem is based in British Columbia, Canada, and completing his master’s in public health at NYU remotely.

“I worked with BAC’s director of marketing communications & human resources remotely and it’s been fantastic communicating with her and the rest of the team,” Faheem said. “We have weekly meetings where I get helpful feedback. I have the freedom to pursue my interests and feel like I can ask for help when I need it.”

Through his internship, Faheem learned a lot about the recycled materials industry, particularly the scope of recycling operations. One of the projects he worked on was NETZERO360 dashboard prototype and messaging toolkit, set up for internal and client use, device-adaptive, and scoped for Tableau embed on bayareacompliance.com. 

NETZERO360 is a calculator that helps businesses assess their carbon footprint by dividing activities into categories like transport, energy, waste, and supply chain, to identify data-driven reduction strategies.

“The recycled materials industry isn’t something that many people think about when they’re considering career paths and we don’t often talk about it much in the public health space,” he said. “I learned that recycling operations is a very complex process with a lot of moving parts. I learned a lot from my time at BAC.”

Faheem found everyone at BAC to be very welcoming during his internship. Though he was remote, he had the opportunity to meet with the whole team and felt that the resources they provided were helpful and personalized, so he had what he needed.

“Pathways is more than a placement, it’s capacity-building,” said Lisa Puckett, Chief Compliance Officer at BAC. “We advanced real work while giving a student meaningful exposure to healthcare compliance and sustainability.”

Puckett would recommend other recyclers participate in the ReMA Pathways Program, noting that it’s pragmatic, well-run, and ROI-positive when scoped right.

“ReMA Pathways turned an internship into real capacity. Sarim helped us push NETZERO360 from concept to a working dashboard and toolkit, while learning the realities of environmental compliance,” she said.

Jones agrees, noting that it was not only helpful to have a student help support various projects for the company, but also important to provide training to the next generation of young college graduates who are interested in stepping into the industry.

“It’s a worthwhile opportunity to train the next generation of recyclers and worthwhile for your business,” he said. “You only know what you know. When you start to teach and train someone, you realize what areas you need to improve for yourself. The next generation is going to be in the workforce sooner rather than later, so take the time to listen and learn from them, they may have ideas you haven’t considered.”

The Pathways Program is a no-cost service provided to all members. Any interested member can learn more and sign up on ReMA’s website, or can reach out directly to Natalie Messer Betts, ReMA’s Assistant Vice President of Sustainability, at [email protected].