blueEnergy works to create a more equitable, sustainable world

9/10/2012

A summer in San Francisco with blueEnergy

By Austen Sybert -- College students have many choices when deciding how to spend their
summers away from school. Work, more school, volunteer, intern or just lay at the
pool are all options, widely varying in their degree of academic enrichment and
rejuvenation. This summer, I interned for blueEnergy and the opportunity provided
a perfect compliment to my formal environmental engineering studies. My
entrepreneurship and management training was accelerated under the supervision
of a fellow environmental engineer, Executive Director Mathias Craig, who has
successfully used engineering in complement with entrepreneurship and passion to
achieve a more equitable and sustainable world.

I knew by committing to my internship with blueEnergy I was not embarking
on developing complex engineering models based on facts that I directly learned back at
school. This transition to a work environment removed from my
environmental engineering studies initially caused some apprehension. Then I
recognized that my internship would utilize my foundation in engineering to diversify my
skill set, ultimately providing greater enrichment than if I remained in my narrow
window of expertise. blueEnergy allowed me to apply my analytic knowledge base
to an innovative business environment.

This summer I helped run day-to-day operations in a small entrepreneurial
office - I planned and implemented the Change Today Empower Tomorrow
campaign tactics, which raised over $10,000 in 4 weeks - I coordinated
communications and developed data management solutions with the blueEnergy
global community via data collection, social media and email outreach - I problem
solved blueEnergy's organizational structure with two co-founders, Mathias and
Guillaume Craig, which was definitely the highlight of my time with blueEnergy.
My summer spent with blueEnergy was a highly valuable way to compliment
my formal engineering studies by diversifying my skillset. I am now looking forward
applying my broader range of skills to enhance my final year of studies at Johns
Hopkins University and my future career. 
Intern, Austen Sybert takes in a Giant's game on his last day interning with blueEnergy. 
Thanks blueEnergy!

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