First Day of Internship

Today was the first day I spent at my internship at the California Center for Sustainable Energy. I'm glad that I was placed here because I like the organization's overall objective. They are a non-profit that works to "Green the World" through outreach events, public education, free workshops, etc. They are dedicated to educating the public on alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power.

I got to my internship on the HTH shuttle. Riding with me was Leo, Chandler, and Vanessa, and also a few HTHI students and one girl from HTH. We left school around 12:10 and Leo, Chandler and I were the second to last stop.

I didn't eat lunch today because I wasn't exactly sure where I was supposed to be for the shuttle, but maybe since I know now I'll be able to eat lunch.

I met my mentor, Kimberly, when I first got there and she is probably the best mentor I could have gotten. She's really nice, funny, and laid-back. I'm the first intern she's ever had, so she told me it would be a learning experience for both of us, which I think makes things more interesting.

The first thing we did was take a tour around the entire office, which was really really big. I met a lot of people and they were all really nice. After that, I sat in on an interview for a job applicant. It was over an hour long and it was hard to stay awake. It was kind of like paneling for a POL. Still, I'm glad I did that because I took away some tips for interviewing and also learned a little more background information on CCSE.

After that, my mentor and I talked for awhile and she told me what her job was like and some of the things I could help her with over the next couple of months. As far as the work environment goes, I like it a lot. It's still like an office with cubicles and desks, but most of the people, especially my mentor, make it more fun and cute. She puts signs on her door and stickers everywhere and she's very enthusiastic about everything, which makes even boring things a little interesting.

After all that, I left around four o'clock and went home with my dad.

Overall, everything went well and wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be. I'm happy that my mentor has such a great personality. I still think it will be weird to go there twice every week, but hopefully I'll get used to that. It was a little weird being the youngest person surrounded by adults that I had just met, but they were all super nice. I wasn't as outgoing as I would have liked to be and was a little quiet, but I think I made a good first impression and I hope I will prove myself this semester.