BLOGS
What my month looked like at GRID alternatives.
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January 4, 2023
Tomorrow, I start my first day of internship with GRID alternatives. I hope this experience opens me up to a world of opportunities with exploring renewable energy. I'm looking forward to getting a feel of what it's like to do paperwork maybe and just all the logistics that go into providing families not only with energy but also information. (Hopefully not too much paperwork) With all this excitement leading up to the internship, I am also very nervous to be in a new environment and overall, just entering a workspace that's like not a classroom. I hope this internship helps me build connections and helps me grow in collaboration with others in a work setting.
Week 1
Week 1
January 4, 2023
For our first week, we had a run-through of the project we will be doing. The name of the project is " Southeastern Community Mobility Roadmap" the project is basically helping the community engage with clean mobility. For this project, we will be working in the southeastern San Diego community with some sort of beautification. I plan to help look for local artists and speak to them about painting a mural about mobility. I also plan to work with the San Diego Black Arts and Culture District to see if they know of any local businesses that would be ok with having a mural made on their business establishment. The district spans from 61st through 69th on Imperial Ave which is a large part of the Southeast community.
Week 2
January 11,2023
January 11,2023
For our project we will be doing a series of community beautification for the Community of Southeast San Diego. In collaboration with other CBO's (community-based organizations) and the Southeast communities input we will be putting 100k towards "community beautification and wayfinding". My jobs for this project have been finding local muralist of San Diego to paint murals around public places in the community (that being parks and local businesses) while also getting bike racks for Grant Hill Park in specific. We are also in contact with Millennial Tech Middle school's earth Lad which is a part of their stem curriculum to get them these PRIMO seedlings. The seedlings are wind and solar genitor's that can be bult by the children themselves and provide power for them and the earth Lab which also hosts a lot of community events as well. We are also reaching out to the mt. Hope Garden to see if we can help support their garden more and see if we could provide bike racks for them as well. There is a lot of technical skills I will have to developed for this but just in general just communication skills will be most important. This project will give the community in site of the work that GRID dose for the benefit of the community.
January 12,2023
January 12,2023
I think that not too far into my internship I had this sense of "this is what I should be doing" because a lot of what GRID Alternatives does is work for the underserved communities. GRID helping these communities have more equitable opportunities not only being solar energy but other reusable energy opportunities. This brings me back to conversations I've had with Ernesto when talking about my future. And the question "What do you want to be remembered for" always comes to mind when I'm working because I don't want to do things that just benefits me but the people around me, so we grow and better ourselves as a community. It feels amazing to be working for the community I grew up in and being able to give back not only to make me feel accomplished but to help the future of my community.
Week 3
Mt. Hope community garden
Social Interactions
Social Interactions
I feel like I have had a lot of social interactions around the office. First starting with the people that work there and then speaking with other CBO's about our project has been a big part of my days. I've been often very quiet when it comes to having semiprofessional discussions. But these last 2 days of this week we went to a solar install with a group of trainees that joined GRID just around the same time we did. And I think this was a really great time for me to open up and it was I spoke more with the people around me and I was able to comfortable starting conversations. Which I think has been kind of hard for me in my new environment. I think the community they have in the office and out in construction is very collaborative and it feels very nice to add to that warm welcoming smile when like speaking to the home owners or even just interacting with one another.
JAN. 19, 2023
This is a photo of a Chicken (obviously). But this chicken belonged to the lady of the house we were doing a solar install on. She had chickens, bunnies and a very lovely dog named titan. The lady and the animals were a pleasure to be around and made it a fun experience.
Favorite Pictures (so far)
JAN 20,2023
This is a photo from a solar install we did. I installed wiring from the new solar breaker to the existing breaker. #supercool
Week 4
Jan 24, 2023
I hope to continue working with my mentor. At least to watch how our project finishes because there is a lot of factors that will come into our project way after I finish my internship here. So, I hope to get updates and hopefully on my own time go out and see the sites where I know the project has made an impact in.
Jan 26, 2023
There is a lot of benefits that GRID offers to the community. Us in specific we have been helping out the outreach team with our project I previously mentioned. With just communicating and organization mostly. Last week we went to a solar install, so we also just helped with that manually. And these experiences have not only benefited the organization with just having more hands-on beck. But also providing us with learning opportunities and building my communication skills.
Week 5 (last week)
Jan 31, 2023
Jan 31, 2023
I feel like my internship has definitely made me think of not so much what I want to do but what do I want to get from what I do. In my future I will mostly consider doing something that benefits people directly just because I think it would give me more satisfaction. I want to be doing physical work outside and around other people. I am also considering working community based. Whichever city I end up living in I don't just want to live there but be a part of them and their culture.
Feb 1,2023
Feb 1,2023
I am actually very excited to be going back to school. I miss having my daily social interactions with everyone. I feel going back to school for the most of us is going to be very slow because I mean we were gone for a whole month working and having completely different schedules. I'm going to miss waking up a little later and having my own little desk more now that I'm going to send most of my day in the treehouse. But yea I'm definitely going to need a week long brain break.
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