By moboyle, on July 18, 2011

Like Stephen’s past few weeks with the legislature, things have been pretty quiet at Green Plus lately.  Last week I spent most of my time researching and writing articles on HVAC efficiency and responsible hazardous waste disposal (glamorous, I know).  Needless to say, my workweek didn’t give me much in the way of blog fodder.

It did, however, give me time to plan and reflect.  I made a nice little schedule for my upcoming week, which promises to be busier than the last.

For example, tomorrow is “Bring Your Gordon Whitaker to Work Day”!  Dr. Whitaker, whom I’ve mentioned in a previous post, will visit me at the Durham office to see how my internship is going.  I’m really looking forward to it.  I haven’t seen Dr. Whitaker since school let out, and I’m eager to run my capstone idea past him.  Plus, I’m beyond pleased with my internship, so I’m excited to talk to him about my work.

I told Amanda, a fellow Green Plus intern and my carpool buddy, about this upcoming site visit.  She was impressed that the MPA program conducts site visits, as her graduate program was extremely hands-off when it came to her internship.  From what she told me, it sounds like her program just wanted her to intern for the resume boost.

Although the MPA faculty and staff want to help us add lines to our resumes, I think they’re more interested in making sure we have experiences.  The focus is more on learning and developing skills rather than on CVs.  The more I reflect on that, the happier I am that I chose this program.

I think maybe that’s why I like Green Plus so well, too.  I know that hiring interns saves the organization money, but I don’t feel like that’s Green Plus’ main objective.  From day one, my supervisors have asked me what I needed from them, what I needed to learn and grow.  It’s this kind of personal investment that has made all the difference to me so far this summer.

Check back next Monday to hear about the site visit, as well as Green Plus’ “Innovation Café” with PlotWatt (I’m not entirely sure what that is, but I’ll be sure to fill you in next week).

Thanks for reading!

Molly