First Day at My Internship

Today was my first day interning at the California Center for Sustainable Energy.

I arrived at my internship site via a 45 minute shuttle-ride. Ana, Leo and I intern at the same company; Leo and I have the same mentor. We walked in the building with little knowledge of what awaited our entry. We were greeted by three employees enjoying their lunch breaks in the lobby; they told us that our mentors would join our small group in a few minutes. Ana, Leo and I casually looked at several of the sustainability themed displays in the lobby.

About 15 minutes later a woman named Kimberly walked into the lobby and introduced herself. She gave us a tour of the building and introduced us to all of the employees. After roughly half an hour filled with brief introductions, handshakes and small talk, Kimberly concluded our tour by showing us two videos that documented fundraisers that the company had organized.

My mentor, Andrea, was in a meeting, so Kimberly sent Leo and I to start our first assignment. An intern named Jeremy asked us to look through multiple employee airfare reimbursement documents in order to help calculate the company's 2008 carbon footprint. After about 45 minutes of recording information, Andrea walked into our office (that's right, not a cubical, an office) and introduced herself and gave us a description of our duties. We continued to work until 4:30 at which point my dad picked me up.