Green Chimneys Week 4

This past week we dove into what areas of training, that we were interested in. I learned about the kids Ill be working with, I even met a few of them.  We have 1 last week of training, where I will observe classes and be assign a dorm to look after.

Green Chimneys week 3

This week we were taught Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) and how to perform restraints if we ever needed to.  It was a long 28 hours but, I did learn a few new things that could provide useful in any situation.  This next week we should be having the dorms that we will be working with assigned to us, after we finish blood borne pathogens training.

Green Chimneys week 2

This was my second week of training I work with the staff and the other interns but we have also been partnered up, to help us learn faster. For the rest of the month I work 6 days a week with Sunday off.  This up coming week is the last training week I believe this upcoming week will be different than the last two instead of learn about how to take care of ourselves on the farm we will go through training for work with the kids that attend Green Chimneys.

week 1 at Green Chimneys internship

This was the first week of my internship at Green Chimneys, During this week I learned the schedule and inter-workings of the farm and animals.  In the upcoming week I will go through more train with the other interns and the staff to learn the kids schedules and what to do in situations, I will also be meeting interns that I don't already live with or work with directly.
Overall the first week helped me adjust to the schedules and set me up to succeed this upcoming week.

Week Twelve of Theo's internship with Sustainable Princeton

The twelfth and final week of my summer internship at Sustainable Princeton was quite slow yet very fruitful. As Christine and I set up the first two of the new drop off points for the BYOB plastic film recycling program at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Princeton and the All Saints Church in Princeton. Other than that, I mostly helped out with smaller things that could easily be completed within the time frame of a week such as setting up events on the Sustainable Princeton Facebook page so people know about the events. 

Overall this internship has been a fantastic experience for me and I have learned a lot of different things in terms of what metrics and measures are used on the ground for sustainability in New Jersey, how to run a vehicle inventory analysis, and how to coordinate with both other non-governmental organizations and local governments among other things. Additionally I have gained experience doing actual policy related sustainability work in terms of my Vehicle Fleet Analysis for Princeton's Sustainable Jersey certification and my work on the application for an energy audit for key Municipal buildings in Princeton. 

Finally I would like to thank Christine and Molly from Sustainable Princeton for giving me this great learning opportunity. I have truly gained a lot from it and I hope that I have contributed just as much as I've gained from Sustainable Princeton. It has truly been an amazing twelve weeks.

Week Eleven of Theo's internship with Sustainable Princeton

The eleventh week of my summer internship at Sustainable Princeton began with me continuing my work on the local government energy audit program (LGEA) as I was finally able to acquire the necessary gas and electrical bills for both the Department of Public Works building and one of the three firehouses in Princeton. Unfortunately, we still haven’t been able to find the required gas and electrical bills for the municipal building housing both the Recreation Department and the Information Technology Department either online or in the Municipality of Princeton’s records. Thus, our only option now is to request paper copies for the past twenty-four months from the utility company PSE&G and hope they get here before my internship is completed. Sadly, this not only means that I wasn’t able to complete the audit application this week but I might not be able to complete it over the course of this internship.

On the BYOB plastic film recycling front, however things are steadily nearing completion. This week I have been following up with the contacts at each of the nine potential drop off locations to schedule a twenty to thirty minute meeting for next week on what the bins are for, what can and can’t go in them, where to drop them off when they get full and so on. 

For the twelfth and final week of my internship I hope to both finish the LGEA energy audit application if I can get the bills in time and meet with our various contacts throughout the week and finalize things on the plastic film recycling front. Overall, this was a wonderful week and it is hard to believe there is only one week left in my internship. It’s been a wonderful experience for me as I feel I’ve not only learned a lot but also given back in a meaningful way to the community that I grew up in!

Week Ten of Theo's internship with Sustainable Princeton

The tenth week of my summer internship at Sustainable Princeton began on Tuesday due to me needing a day off to recover from an infection I got the previous Friday. Thus, we reconvened on at 4:00 P.M. on Tuesday so that Christine and I could both discuss what I would be doing for the week and to meet with Unity College’s internship coordinator Reeta at 4:30 P.M. The meeting went really well and we discussed a number of things such as what I’ve been working on, how much I’m enjoying my internship, how good of a job I’ve done during my internship, and what I’ve learned/gained from this internship.

I also continued my work on filling out the local government energy audit program (LGEA) application this week. The focus for this week was on adding data from the electric and gas bills of May 2016 to the application. This allowed us to finally reach the fourteen months of electric and gas bill data required by the application. However, I still need to acquire the data for the Princeton rec department/I.T. department building, the data for one of the fire department/maintenance department buildings, and the senior resource center buildings.

For the eleventh week of my internship I plan on both finishing the LGEA energy audit application and acquiring the necessary stickers for the BYOB program expansion so that we can finally set up the bins! Overall, this was a wonderful week and I am extremely excited to see what the next week of my internship will bring!