As most of you know, this semester I am interning at the Virginia Sierra Club in downtown Richmond. It is an unpaid internship, and most of the hours I put in are spent in the office with the staff, phone-banking, sending e-mails, sorting petitions and organizing events and volunteers. Other times, however, I attend the events I recruited volunteers for, train them, and volunteer with them. The Environmental Film Festival was the first such event. Other more recent ones have been our weekly Activist Nights and farmers market tabling.
My favorite part of this job so far has definitely been researching farmers markets and attending them. I get entirely too excited on the websites of the various farmers markets in Richmond, because most of them have lists of who their vendors are and what they sell. This weekend, Meeps, Natalie and I are tabling at the South of the James River market and we CAN. NOT. WAIT. The vendors list includes vendors selling pottery, organic produce, local raw honey, sticky buns, crepes, smores, henna, and artisan breads. Volunteering never tasted so good.
Being an intern and volunteer at the Sierra Club this semester has taught me a TON about work in the real world, what I want to do when I graduate and myself. Communicating with Sierra Club higher-ups, training volunteers and striving to maintain a working relationship with my boss has taught me a lot about conducting myself in a professional setting. And though this experience has made me realize that a political environmental career is not for me, it has strengthened my desire to pursue the scientific end of environmentalism and become a researcher. The long hours in the office behind a desk drive me slightly insane, and I often find my thoughts wandering to collecting data for my research project in Costa Rica this fall. I’m very glad I pursued this internship and recommend it to any student that wants to dip their toes into activism.