New Internship Opportunities Offered to HMC Students

Environmentally minded Harvey Mudd College students have new internship and volunteer opportunities available to them, thanks to programs offered by Harvey Mudd and Claremont McKenna colleges.

Representatives from The Hixon Center for Sustainable Environmental Design at Harvey Mudd College and the Roberts Environmental Center at Claremont McKenna College welcomed local community members Nov. 15 to the Energize Colleges and Claremont Locally Grown Power (CLGP) Launch event where they shared plans to expand opportunities for students to learn about and prepare for the clean energy sector of the 21st century.

Energize Colleges is an initiative sponsored by California utility ratepayers and managed by the nonprofit Strategic Energy Innovations (SEI) that aims to spread advancement of energy and sustainability careers through experiential learning. A total of nine colleges and universities across the state were selected to participate, among them Harvey Mudd and Claremont McKenna colleges. The program includes a three-year investment in energy-sector internships for Harvey Mudd and Claremont McKenna students.

In collaboration with other local organizations, Energize Colleges, through its internships, is supporting the Claremont Locally Grown Power initiative, which aims to bring solar manufacturing to Claremont to support renewable energy jobs and use a patented technology to build low-cost solar photovoltaic (PV) for residents.

Energize Colleges begins with 10 semester-long internships through spring 2017. Students may select internships that follow specific career pathways, including energy engineering, environmental controls technology, solar design, sales, estimation, installation and maintenance, energy auditing, energy storage, energy and environmental management, and building construction and architecture. One of the available opportunities at Harvey Mudd is an internship with the Office of Facilities and Maintenance, where interns will help measure and aggregate important environmental data to gain sustainability certification and support the development of a pathway to carbon neutrality. Students will also have the chance to become involved in other sustainability initiatives on campus, including Green Fund projects.

“Energy is going to be a deciding factor for our country’s future,” said Hixon Center for Sustainable Environmental Design Director Tanja Srebotnjak. “Building knowledge and capacity in college will be critical to fill the pipeline for what is already a growing and rapidly evolving professional field. Thus, Energize Colleges not only helps to fill a pressing need but it also aligns very well with Harvey Mudd College’s mission.”

For more information, please contact the Hixon Center for Sustainable Environmental Design at hmc.edu/hcsed or hixoncenter@hmc.edu.