This blog post is written by our 2021 Summer Fellow from UNH's Sustainability Institute, Lila Nelson:
This summer, I had the great privilege of working with ReVision Energy. Coming from the Midwest, I had never heard of ReVision until I was searching for a summer job and stumbled across the University of New Hampshire's Sustainability Institute . Every year they search for students looking to go into the sustainability field to work with several host organizations for a summer fellowship program.
This spring, I applied for their fellowship and landed an interview with ReVision. Preparing for my interview, I scoured the ReVision Energy website and was beyond impressed. Impressed with their informational website, impressed that it was a completely employee-owned company, and impressed that it was a B Corporation - something I had learned about in school, being an Environmental Conservation & Sustainability major.
The fellowship was worded as "Climate Change Education and Lesson Planning" and although I hadn't considered a future in education, I had always been passionate about teaching others about the climate crisis and advocating for future generations. When I got a call saying I had been selected for the job, I was so excited that I'd get to do something fun and meaningful this summer. My experience has absolutely exceeded expectations. I had a fabulous mentor, Brittany Angelo , and was very fortunate to work with the entire Marketing team at ReVision.
We spent the summer creating lesson plans on exciting topics such as an in-depth description of what solar power is and how it works, the environmental effects of renewable resources versus non-renewable resources, the process of composting, and more. I was pushed to apply my knowledge to a field I had little experience in - education. Working with the Marketing team was especially rewarding, because I was able to view all of this information from a completely different perspective compared to the policy perspective I have been learning at school.
As a rising senior at UNH, I look forward to continuing to expand my knowledge on the climate crisis and helping others learn about it as well. I am also very excited to see these lesson plans taken on the road, in the clean energy-powered tiny education center, and with the help of Sunsquatch. I am so excited to see how these lesson plans may help kids become more passionate and vocal about environmental issues and help sustainability programs in K-12 schools expand.
