Ben Dobrowski

Internship with SolarQuest LLC / Renewable Nations Institue / Allan Baer

abaer@solarquest.us

I spent the semester interning with Allan Baer of SolarQuest and the Renewable Nations Institute. The focus of my time spent was aimed to take place at the Power Shift 2011 convention held in Washington, D.C. The overall goal and mission of my duties were to seek out students potentially interested in becoming enrolled in a graduate program offered through Renewable Nations Institute at the Power Shift convention in hopes of meeting a quota in order to receive funding to initiate start up of the school.

The beginning of my time was spent researching content for the Institutes Green Energy Journal, which would be the source of income for students enrolled in the program to secure jobs and earn while they learn. Allan had an array of usable info, but used us as interns to whittle down to the topics that would interest student our age. The rest of my time was spent preparing for Power Shift and how I would go about my recruiting. I needed prepare a story and stick with it so I was consistent in my stories. During the Power Shift event, I had great experiences talking with prospective institute students and throwing myself out there in order to get their names of an interest form, something I am not very used to. So it was great being put in a position and work environment that I am normally familiar with. I enjoyed the opportunity I had with Allan and would recommend working with him in other internship scenarios. He seems to be on track with doing some great things for green-energy education in VT and I hope him the best.