Name: Sarah Golobish
Class Year: 2020
Major: Political Science
Hometown: Princeton, N.J.

Internship Organization: Energy Vision
Job Title: Summer Associate
Location: New York City

At Energy Vision, Sarah is conducting research on sustainability within the heavy-duty trucking industry.

What’s happening at your internship?

Energy Vision is a New York-based national environmental nonprofit that advocates for sustainability in the transportation sector. On a day-to-day basis this translates to research, outreach, and a variety of special educational initiatives. Throughout my time there I’ve gotten to attend meetings, hearings and help with a few research projects. My main research focus has been looking into the sustainability of the largest heavy-duty truck fleets in America. Through my work, I’ve found out a great deal about this often-overlooked industry and how efforts to “go green” are hardly as simple as they seem. Given that I want to go into environmental nonprofit work after graduation, the summer as a whole has been an incredibly valuable learning opportunity.

Sarah and Energy Vision founder and trustee Joanna Underwood ’62.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I feel that I work best in environments where I am able to put my odd mix of interests to work and finding that can be hard as a political science major and environmental studies/computational methods minor. However, research and advocacy around clean energy fits perfectly into that niche and has a positive impact on the world. Energy Vision’s work stood out to me as exactly this sort of advocacy that would give me a chance to apply what I’ve learned in my courses — and to practice what I hope to do post-graduation.

Was there anything special about how you found this internship?

I first heard about Energy Vision in a 360° Course Cluster that I took my sophomore year when the organization’s president (a Haverford alumnus) came and spoke about anaerobic digestion and the work that Energy Vision does. The whole concept of creating energy from waste was new to me and turned out to be an interesting portion of what we studied. The work I did in those courses helped me focus in on my passion for environmental advocacy and, funnily enough, taught me the skills that I’m putting to use this summer!

Energy Vision’s relationship to Bryn Mawr is also special in that its founder is a BMC alumna. Joanna Underwood ’62 founded the nonprofit in 2007 and has worked with many Bi-Co alumni and students in the past 12 years. Through this close relationship, EV has been able to offer an internship to a current BMC student for the past few summers.

I had the opportunity to meet Johanna at the opening of NYC’s first fueling station to exclusively offer renewable natural gas (RNG). Over the past 10 years, Energy Vision has helped advocate for this station and ones just like it across the US that provide RNG – a cleaner, low-carbon alternative to diesel.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

It has been incredibly rewarding to work on an issue as important as climate change at a time when it seems like there isn’t much we as individuals can do to help. There is no single solution to a problem like this, but organizations like Energy Vision are looking at issues of sustainability holistically and pushing for strategies that can help to make a real impact right away. It has been wonderful to work with people who are just as passionate about the intricacies of it all and who are working to make positive change. This summer’s internship at Energy Vision has allowed me to dive into some very complicated questions around an issue I care deeply about and has pushed me to develop skills that I know will be crucial in my life after graduation.