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Major: Environmental Studies with a Nexus in Journalism, Media and Public Discourse

Concentration: Environment and Development

Internship sponsor: United States Environmental Protection Agency, Boston, MA

The US EPA works to protect the environment and human health through a number of ways such as developing regulations that protect the human health and environment, giving grants for community clean up, studying environmental issues and informing the public about environmental responsibility. I worked in the Public Affairs Office which dealt with communicating to the public and news media about the EPA and its various efforts to protect the environment.

My internship responsibilities included aiding in various projects. I assisted in planning a conference and I was in charge of contacting invitees to events and researching ideas and points of interest for the conference as well as communicating these to the planning committee. I also worked on the EPA national student blog. I contacted various schools and students who I thought would be interested in contributing to the blog and developed a new design for the blog.

I also worked on another community outreach project, where I contacted 200 towns to recruit them to participate in the Community Energy Challenge where communities are asked to take simple and cost-effective measures that increase energy efficiency and renewable energy use while reducing air pollution and saving money.

I also worked on the Superfund site web project where I had to edit and write summaries for Superfund projects to be used on their webpage for easy access by media outlets and the public. I learnt how to communicate efficiently, edit and write press releases as well as blog write-ups. However, I wasn't able to see the final blog being put up since the communications office changed at the headquarters and they started reworking the entire communications sector, especially the social media area. I did however get to sit in on the discussion and recommend strategies.