Academy Student Shapes Fryeburg’s Future at Town Office by Aspen Hazelwood '26

At Fryeburg Academy, students benefit from several unique resources. One many had looked over is the town itself. That is, until Aidan Taljard ‘26 connected with faculty and community members Mary Bazanchuk and Greg Huang-Dale to secure an internship at the Fryeburg Town Office. Now—every Wednesday and Thursday, Aidan works with Academy Alumnus Caleb Bowles ‘19, Town Code Enforcement Officer. 

Being the first student in Academy history to intern at the Town Office, Aidan’s role is largely undefined. Aspiring to major in urban planning, Aidan speaks highly of the experience he gets from shadowing Bowles; he says, “It’s pretty interesting. You might think that it’s just looking at paperwork, but a few weeks ago, someone came to him [Bowles] asking to build a mobile massage parlor on Weston's beach, so it’s pretty exciting.” That being said, a big part of Aidan’s internship is paperwork. At the moment, he’s contributing to the planning of a new municipal building. His role includes grant writing and extensive creative problem-solving. Under the previous administration, federal government-backed agencies had awarded the town the funds to raise the building, but the grants have since been terminated. 

Aidan is a boarding student at the Academy, coming from Johannesburg, South Africa. He attributes much of his career aspirations to his upbringing, having witnessed countless scenes of infrastructural mismanagement and political corruption. In comparison, facts are hard to extract from an area so afflicted by political discord; many claim that over 40 million USD in government funds is embezzled each day. Before coming to Fryeburg, Aidan visited New York City several times. In recalling his visits, he says, “It’s not like anywhere else, completely chaotic, traffic is horrendous, yet it all kind of works. To me, albeit it has its issues, it’s an inspiration to what other cities could be.”

At the time of writing, Aidan’s first-choice school—Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey—is less than an hour from the city. He is most attracted to the school by its highly esteemed urban planning program, ranked 3rd in the country in 2023. Having recognized the NYC subway as a system capable of making a profound change in Johannesburg, Aidan hopes to specialize in public transportation planning. While he’s felt drawn to a profession in the field of urban planning since he was eleven or twelve years old, “everyone can tell you what a chef or a doctor does, but when people ask me, ‘What does an urban planner do?’ I don't even really know, so that's why I'm doing this internship.”

Aidan’s internship is not only a means of strengthening his college application but also a way to explore a field of interest and obtain valuable experience. Like Aidan, all students have the opportunity to get ahead through the rich pool of resources available within and around the Academy.