Sunrise Mountain Partners, Greenwich, CT
This summer I worked at Sunrise Mountain Partners (SMP) as a clean energy fellow. Around March, I started looking for work and came across a post on this internship on EphLink. I knew clean energy was the industry I wanted to start my career in. Taking an environmental economics tutorial during my freshman spring piqued my curiosity in this field, and I wanted to work on this subject matter during my sophomore summer. After completing an introductory phone call and a couple of assignments, I was accepted to work for SMP and was excited to see what my summer would entail.
During the internship, I was heavily involved in research. This involved diving into the transition of fleets of trucks from gas to electric. Usually, I would be given a task to work on and given two days to complete it. Our team would meet triweekly, so during each meeting, I would give an update on my assignments for the week. Although the team was small, it was somewhat of a beneficial experience to gain close professional contacts within the industry and learn more about an impactful industry in the world. The flexibility of working remotely helped tremendously with setting my schedule, but this still meant I had to work extremely hard to satisfy my supervisor’s expectations. I continued to look for ways to go above and beyond, adding additional pieces of information in my assignments that were relevant and helped the company make even more informed business decisions. Unlike classes at Williams, where there is a set time to show up and learn, this internship was much more independent. Although this was difficult to adjust to at first, I created a rhythm to get my work done efficiently. Moving forward with my career and academics, I have learned dedicating chunks of time to a certain goal makes larger goals seem much more attainable. I was also involved with the lunch and learn series, where we learned from guest speakers each week about their expertise in the clean energy industry. One of the main goals of the company is removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere, which motivated me to be accurate and diligent during my job.
Although I worked remotely, I was still able to see the majority of my team during a visit to New York when our supervisor invited us to a Yankees game. It was great to be able to meet the people I had been working with for so long.
I want to thank Jim Marver ’72 and the ’68 Center for this opportunity this summer. I have learned lots about my future aspirations because of this experience, and the industry of clean energy is somewhere I want to continue to work. I have continuously gained knowledge on this topic, and this summer I gained substantially more. Wherever my future takes me, this internship has helped me immensely.