My name is Blythe, and I am going in to my fourth and final year at 麻豆AV. I started my degree in Economics, but soon realized that was not the right path for me and transferred to Environment and Development. I have always been passionate about mitigating climate change, so the decision to change programs felt obvious. My areas of interest include environmental law and policy, the role of NGOs in preventing climate change and contributing to civil mobilization, the relationship between developed and developing countries regarding not least the exportation of waste, and renewable technologies.
I wanted learn more about Climate Reality Project after hearing about the NGO at the Desautels Sustainability Conference. I looked into the organization after its presentation and realized my interests align with its goals, and further, that I could apply for an internship with the organization through 麻豆AV. Two intern positions were available, and I applied for both in the hopes that I would be able to contribute my knowledge and passion to the Climate Reality team, and more broadly, to the mission to combat climate change in Canada.
The Climate Reality Project is multi-faceted, but its main mission is to instigate a global solution to climate change by emphasizing the necessity of immediate action across every level of society, from the community level upwards. Among other things, it has created its own set of environmental indicators that are used to compare Canadian municipalities, ran climate trainings which teach citizens about the realities of our situation and possible solutions, as well as created community 鈥渉ubs鈥� which allow citizens in municipalities to collaborate on and promote environmental projects and pro-climate action measures.
As a Research and Communications intern with Climate Reality Project Canada, I had flexibility in my role in terms of what I could or wanted to do, and when I wanted to do it. However, I did have two primary responsibilities in my mandate. The first of these was to contact and engage with academic researchers, policy makers, and industry professionals on how to improve the indicators that Climate Reality had created, in order to increase both their accuracy and legitimacy. Along with my supervisor, I was able to engage with experts in their field and talk extensively about interesting environmental topics. As mentioned, this was with the goal of improving the indicators, but an external benefit was that I learned a lot more about different environmental topics from a practical perspective in the process. The second part of my mandate was to create websites for each of the aforementioned Hubs, which are spread across Canada. This was in order to create platforms with uniform, centralized information for each group so that they could accurately portray their mission and actions as well as how to get involved. I also had various smaller tasks, such as creating timelines of progress and conducting interviews with Hub leaders.
The highlight of my internship was being able to engage with academics on a different level than I have been able to during my undergraduate career. Conversations felt more like a helpful partnership, and while I was still in awe of their experiences and education, it felt empowering being able to engage in discussions not related to things like grades or essays, but rather on something that has an impact outside of academia. With this aspect of my internship in particular, I was able to unite my education, prior work experiences, and personal passions into a highly rewarding endeavour.
The internship has shaped my career by helping to confirm that I definitely want to pursue a career in environmental protection, but where or how I will choose to do that is still up in the air. It has also proven to me that I am adaptable, which gives me comfort in determining what my work will be in the future. I did not do this internship for academic credit.
I received funding from the Arts Undergraduate Improvement Fund, and while I do not know the name of the donor, I wish to extend thanks to every person or entity that has donated to it and to every other internship fund. The award allowed me to pursue this internship this summer, as opposed to having to look for something paid that could have been less valuable. My sincerest thank you.
