A warm thank you to previous L&E students for applying for this TGIF grant, and The Green Initiative Fund themselves for rewarding us with the funds to carry out these summer internships.
Our grant proposal was similar to our initiative’s goal – to increase diversity in the environmental sector and STEM fields by providing first generation and underrepresented students with technical environmental training often needed for jobs in environmental fields – and through the hard work of our partners and members, we believe that we succeeded this Summer in bringing that goal into fruition!
Summer 2020 Internship Reflection: Erica Garibay
Erica worked with The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, a statewide coalition building a collective, community-based movement for democratic water allocation, management, and policy in California.
Give a brief description of your internship.
“During my internship, another student and I put together a median household income survey report. The report covers one of many locations across central California, and is part of a joint program/grant between the California State Resources Water Control Board and the USDA. It is meant to assist disadvantaged communities and address problems with their water systems.”
What new skills did you walk away with from your internship?
“I developed my research skills in retrieving parcel count maps for the Middlefield community. I also learned how to structure a formal report.”
What were your deliverables at the end of your project?
“A median household income report for the Middlefield community in Salinas, CA.”
What does the Latinxs & the Environment initiative/seminar mean to you?*
“The Latinxs & the Environment initiative represents community and empowerment. It is an essential form of community-building essential to empower Latino students and professionals to work towards environmental goals.”
Summer 2020 Internship Reflection: Cristina Acosta Navarro
Cristina worked with The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, a statewide coalition building a collective, community-based movement for democratic water allocation, management, and policy in California.
Give a brief description of your internship.
“As an intern for EJCW I learned more about issues centering water rights and was given the opportunity to interview community members who aimed to worked alongside the coalition, as well as worked to translate resources.”
What new skills did you walk away with from your internship?
“Through this internship I was able to solidify my skills as a Spanish speaker and writer and further developed my communication skills by consistently addressing concerns and asking for guidance from partners.”
What were your deliverables at the end of your project?
“Panel translations that were uploaded in order for community members to have access.”
What would you describe as the most challenging part of your experience?
“Adjusting to everything being online was definitely the biggest challenge! I would have enjoyed working alongside community in physical spaces!”
What does the Latinxs & the Environment initiative/seminar mean to you?*
“Latinxs and the Environment is a space for me to grow as both a student and professional and more importantly, a space in which I am guided by individuals with similar backgrounds!”
Summer 2020 Internship Reflection: Leslie Alfonso
Leslie worked with The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, a statewide coalition building a collective, community-based movement for democratic water allocation, management, and policy in California.
Give a brief description of your internship.
“During my internship, I worked with analyzing median household income (MHI) data of the Monterrey community in the San Joaquin Valley as a part of a report on water quality/accessibility issues.”
What new skills did you walk away with from your internship?
“Skills that I developed further were data collecting, the application of statistics, project management, and self-sufficiency.”
What were your deliverables at the end of your project?
“My deliverable was to completing an MHI report that would be sent to the California State Water Resources Control Board.”
What does the Latinxs & the Environment initiative/seminar mean to you?*
“L&E has been the only space at UC Berkeley that truly makes me feel comfortable, t’s my home away from home. The people I have met through this initiative have become more than peers or faculty, I consider ourselves to be a familia. If I had never found out about this space, I would have missed out on amazing opportunities such as landing internships, becoming a student ambassador for the UC Global Health Institute, and actually co-leading the seminar!”
Summer 2020 Internship Reflection: Estela Montiel
Estela worked with Climate Resolve, which “builds collaborations to champion equitable climate solutions. [They] connect communities, organizations and policymakers to address a global problem with local action. [They] inclusively develop practical initiatives that reduce climate pollution and prepare for climate impacts.”
Give a brief description of your internship.
“I attended staff meetings and worked closely with Natalie to draft a stakeholder engagement plan after looking through community literature on the topic.”
What new skills did you walk away with from your internship?
“I definitely developed more time-management skills as well as just a better understanding of how non-profits operate.”
What were your deliverables at the end of your project?
“The deliverables included a stakeholder engagement plan and a social media recommendations list on how to utilize different informative creation tools like Canva and Picmonkey.”
What does the Latinxs & the Environment initiative/seminar mean to you?
“It was definitely a place where I found my footing when I started exploring the role I could play in environmentalism as someone who identifies as Latina.”
Along with this interview, Climate Resolve has also written an interview on Estela’s experience found here.
Summer 2020 Internship Reflection: Denise Aparicio Dominguez
Denise worked with Climate Resolve, which “builds collaborations to champion equitable climate solutions. [They] connect communities, organizations and policymakers to address a global problem with local action. [They] inclusively develop practical initiatives that reduce climate pollution and prepare for climate impacts.”
Give a brief description of your internship.
“Climate Resolve was in charge of working on “Task 2″ of a greater project called the Climate Vulnerability Assessment. Estela (now a L&E alumna) and I were tasked with creating a draft of a Stakeholder Engagement Plan and Mapping Exercise. Initially, we reviewed documents that gave us the background information needed in order to outline the goals and purpose of the Stakeholder engagement plan. We also used those documents in order to guide us towards making a stakeholder mapping exercise to help visualize what partners need to be prioritized for this project. Such documents were Guide to Equitable Community-Driven Climate Preparedness Planning and Community-Driven Climate Resilience Planning: A Framework.”
What new skills did you walk away with from your internship?
“I learned how to utilize Google Docs to better organize a long document and to create a mapping template. I learned to better utilize google calendar and hangouts.”
Any specific tools or platforms that you got exposure to? Briefly go into detail.
“Part of the deliverable of creating guide on what social media platforms required Estela and I to research different social media platforms as well as different editing applications.”
Did you have any intern partners working within your same project? If so, give a brief description
“I worked with Estela Montiel on this internship. At that time, I had just finished my freshman year and she had just graduated. As it turned out, this was a complimentary duo because she also served as a mentor to me as she was off to the real world so to speak.”
What were your deliverables at the end of your project?
“Our main deliverable was to draft a Stakeholder Engagement Plan + Mapping Exercise. In addition, we had other smaller deliverables such as attending and compiling notes on a 3 day conference called “Virtual Online Engagement Conference” as well as create a guide on what social media platforms to use in order to increase engagement.”
Are there any valuable insights you gained from working with your community partner/s?
“My mentor, Natalie Hernandez, had a great organization method and allowed me to have the best internship experience I could have asked for. She made it very clear what we needed to do for the week and that helped me stay on track.”
What would you describe as the most challenging part of your experience?
“Initially, after hearing the words “Stakeholder Engagement Plan I was very intimidated because I had no idea what that entailed. However, I had a great mentor that made the deliverables very clear and was always open to help if we had any questions. The documents we had to read were pretty lengthy and they included a lot of information and new terms but with the guidance of our mentor and collaboration with my partner, it became pretty straight forward and easy to understand.”
What does the Latinxs & the Environment initiative/seminar mean to you?
“Latinx & the Environment seminar became a second home to me. It is a place where I felt comfortable and seen within the environmental community here at Cal. It introduced me to other Latinx students that were interested in the same things I was and had similar experiences to me.”
Along with this interview, Climate Resolve has also written an interview on Denise’s internship experience found here.
Summer 2020 Internship Reflection: Alex Acevedo
Alex worked with The LEAP Institute, an organization that “…works with farmworker, Immigrant, youth and disadvantaged communities to achieve social, economic, environmental and climate justice.”
Give a brief description of your internship.
“For my internship with Rey Leon, the mayor of Huron, California, my task was to create a policy brief in order to advocate for a wilderness park in their city. Huron is a small town with limited park space, so we found it important to add a wilderness park to this predominantly Latinx neighborhood.”
What new skills did you walk away with from your internship?
“I learned how to create a policy brief, as well as gained experience in a real workspace.”
What would you describe as the most challenging part of your experience?
“The most challenging part of my experience was learning how to ask questions. We as interns had weekly check-ins with our partners and L&E staff, and I found that I had to really learn how to speak up when I was confused and ask important questions.”
What does the Latinxs & the Environment initiative/seminar mean to you?
“I’ve been a part of the L&E seminar for over two years now, and for me it has always been a place of community. It is the space where I feel comfortable enough to ask the staff and other students questions about research/graduate school/career experiences. It has definitely helped me with my professional development and gaining real life work experience.
I have never found another place on campus where I felt this welcome, and especially a space where we talked about our interests concerning the environment and our communities as people of color.
As a co-lead this semester, it has been an honor to be able to see other students say the same.”
Summer 2020 Internship Reflection: Yelisa Ambriz
Yelisa also worked with The LEAP Institute, an organization that “…works with farmworker, Immigrant, youth and disadvantaged communities to achieve social, economic, environmental and climate justice.”
Give a brief description of your internship.
“The basics were to help out green raiteros which is a non-profit dedicated to help rural communities gain transportation to non emergency appointments via energy efficient vehicles.”
What new skills did you walk away with from your internship?
“I learned many logistical skills such as creating tables and graphs on google docs, how to collect and intake data as well as understand the nonprofit atmosphere.”
What were your deliverables at the end of your project?
“A policy brief/seven page report on transportation network companies.”
What does the Latinxs & the Environment initiative/seminar mean to you?
“The latinx and the environment initiative is a space where I can connect with other members of not only my community but several others. It’s a place where I can share similarities and differences and highlight the experiences that resonate with one another. Sometimes putting towns and cities that nobody has heard of on the map and bringing awareness to those places.”
Summer 2020 Internship Reflection: Nancy Mendoza
Nancy worked with THE CENTER FOR CITIES + SCHOOLS, an organization at UC Berkeley that “…conducts high-quality, non-partisan policy research, engages youth in urban planning, and cultivates collaboration between city and school leaders to strengthen all communities. CC+S works to advance policies and practices that create opportunity-rich places where young people can be successful in and out of school.”
Give a brief description of your internship.
“I was an intern for the Center for Cities and Schools, which runs a program called Y-PLAN that connects schools with city leaders and/or community organizations which seek youth input on solving civic problems. I reviewed and analyzed hours of footage from Spring Y-PLAN projects in order to assess how the CC+S can improve the implementation of Y-PLAN in remote learning environments. Specific tasks included cataloguing quotes, keeping timestamps, writing speaker summaries into an excel sheet, and coding quotes by themes. I also created two different types of documents per project: 1) A supplemental one-page project overview with information on the projects, schools, cities, and clients involved 2) A stakeholder map displaying the relations between the schools, clients, and the Y-PLAN team.”
What new skills did you walk away with from your internship?
“I relearned how to use Adobe InDesign, improved video data analysis skills, applied some education principles, and learned how to create a policy brief.”
Describe the community partner/s you worked with.
“Myrna was my mentor and the person I reported to every week. I cannot describe how supportive she is and how she pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone to grow my own skills. We were open about the things that were and weren’t working throughout the internship.”
Are there any valuable insights you gained from working with your community partner/s?
“If you go into the Education sector, you need to always lead with what is best for students and what the students need. Theres also a lot more planning that goes into programs like Y-PLAN that anyone ever realizes.”
What does the Latinxs & the Environment initiative/seminar mean to you?
“The Latinxs and the Environment Initiative has given me a community filled with people who understand what it’s like to be a POC in higher education and a space where we can all self-cultivate together. It’s a space where we all believe in each other and genuinely want to see each other grow and succeed. It’s a rare gem that isn’t found often at large higher education institutions.”
Summer 2020 Internship Reflection: Brandon Ochoa
Brandon worked within our own organization Latinxs and the Environment, an initiative at UC Berkeley “that seeks to establish a comprehensive program designed to generate knowledge and encourage increased study and research on Latinxs and the environment—both in the U.S. and abroad with the coordinated participation of policy makers, community based organizations (CBOs) and the academic community.”
Give a brief description of your internship.
“This summer I got the opportunity to join the Latinxs & the Environment team. I learned how to manage their social media platforms, create content, and a number of editing tools that were new to me.”
What new skills did you walk away with from your internship?
“My ability to work within a team, especially over the internet, has greatly improved. Coordinating multiple meetings and projects online was difficult at first, but I have noticed my ability to organize and follow through has grown more than ever. Also my computer skills have greatly improved. Many of my tasks required me to learn new software, and after some weeks I become comfortable with all platforms.”
What were your deliverables at the end of your project?
“Beyond the posters and content I created, my final project is to interview all of our summer interns via text and one question via video, used to highlight their accomplishments on all social media platforms. After this project is complete though, I have asked to stay on the L&E team as a fellow running social media.”
Are there any valuable insights you gained from working with your community partner/s?
“Myrna has given me insight on what it means to be a community organizer and mentor, through her work guiding all 12 L&E interns. She has also answered many of my questions about city planning, and has sparked my further interest in the field.”
What would you describe as the most challenging part of your experience?
“The most challenging part of this for me, was organizing my time between intern work and summer classes. While I worked 7 days a week to fulfill both obligations, I had a positive experience.”
What does the Latinxs & the Environment initiative/seminar mean to you?
“Latinxs & the Environment means community and social awareness to me. I sought out a Cal organization where I could find friends and faculty guidance, and found exactly that in L&E. I also appreciate the content we learn during seminar meetings. Environmentalism within the context of the Latinx community is an important topic and L&E has been a great source of information.”