Q. How did you hear of DCSEU, and what led you to seek an internship here?
A. I heard about the DCSEU through Ms. Crystal McDonald. She’s the DCSEU’s Account Management Director but she’s also one of my former girl scout troop leaders. I sought an internship here because I knew I wanted to be working in the field of the environment or sustainability and the fact that the DCSEU is implementing green services across my hometown is attractive.
Q. What does an average day’s work look like for you at DCSEU?
A. I start my day here around 8:30 just checking my calendar for anything I’ll have later in the day. After checking my emails, I then pick up any work I left from the previous day which includes my research on DC green policies, trends in the different vertical markets we serve, and lightbulbs! Some days have office meetings that have proven to be very insightful for me, then I normally eat lunch with others in our intern cohort.
Q. What have you enjoyed most so far about this internship?
A. What I’ve enjoyed most so far about this internship is the opportunity to get out of the office and see the impact the DCSEU has on the community through their events. For example, being able to host a station at the Burroughs Elementary STEM Expo and offering DC senior citizens the opportunity for free solar panels were both great experiences. Of course, the hard work in the office is important, but seeing the payoff of our work is my favorite part.
Q. What do you like to do outside of your internship?
A. Outside of this internship, I enjoy visiting food spots around the city with my friends, baking, watching Grey’s Anatomy, doing face masks, babysitting and shopping!
Q. What role, if any, does energy conservation play in your daily lives?
A. In my daily life, I practice conservation by being mindful about light and water usage in my home (always cutting off lights when I’m not in a room, not taking extremely long and luxurious showers, not using the tv as background noise for my naps) and emphasize those small things within my family. Not a huge role, but always keeping it in the back of my mind has been important since I was younger.
Q. At this point, what would you say is the most valuable knowledge you will take away from this internship?
A. At this point, I’d say the most valuable knowledge I will take away from this internship is to always present information in a way that others will find easy to digest. Something can seem straightforward to me, and the notes I take could make perfect sense to me, but it is a good practice to convert that sort of information into something that anyone could understand. PowerPoints are great!
Q. What would be your dream job?
A. My dream job would be a position working between international officials to mitigate controversy in the writing of environmental policy. Somehow educating different sides on their differences so that an understanding of what’s really going on is the basis on which future international environmental policy will be written, which will hopefully be beneficial to a broader reach. A friend of mine said that would be an “international liaison for environmental affairs” (fancy!). If not that, I’d love to teach AP Environmental Science to high schoolers.