SEI
  • Home
  • Programs
  • Stories
  • About Us
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Our Team
    • Media
    • Get Involved
    • Careers
    • Partners
    • Our Board
    • Our History
    • Contact
  • Give

Stories

A “Virtual” Fellowship Delivers Real Benefits

6/8/2021

3 Comments

 
By Anne-Christine Strugnell

When Chloe Ney graduated from UCLA in 2019 with a BA in geography and environmental studies, she was eager to get started on a career in sustainable urban planning. 

“Conservation of open space is hugely important,” she says. “By making urban spaces more appealing, sustainable, and better for our physical and mental health, we can reduce the tendency to sprawl and enhance the synergy between nature and the built environment.”

But Chloe found no entry-level opportunities: all the jobs in her preferred field required experience, and despite having completed an internship, she couldn’t get a foot in the door. One of her friends had participated in SEI’s Climate Corps program and urged Chloe to check it out. When she went to the SEI website, one opportunity jumped out for her: a Fellowship with Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) to promote on-campus energy conservation. LACCD has the most aggressive and comprehensive sustainability goals in the California community college system: 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and 100% carbon free by 2040.
​
“I grew up in LA, and it’s a special place for me,” Chloe says. “And a college campus is a perfect place for an urban planner to get a start, because campuses are like mini cities.” She applied and was selected for the position. 
Picture
Chloe and her supervisor Aris Hovasapian, Utility Program Manager at LACCD
​Pivoting to professional achievement

Just six weeks after Chloe started her Fellowship at LACCD, the office went virtual in response to the pandemic. All the in-person outreach activities she had planned were cancelled. Now what?
Chloe adapted the focus of her Fellowship and rose to the occasion. Her supervisor at LACCD was the Utility Program Manager, and Chloe stepped in to help his team of one, tracking energy usage and identifying opportunities to maximize energy efficiency across the partially shuttered L.A. City College campus. Her work helped the LACCD to save 255,000 kWh and roughly $371,000 during the first six months of the campus’s COVID-19 shut down by working with staff to identify conservation opportunities, including load shifting and repairing or replacing malfunctioning HVAC equipment.

But what to do about her original project, which was to promote on-campus energy conservation?  Chloe took her expertise online and created a Virtual Climate Curriculum, which ultimately won the 2020 California Community College Board of Governor’s award for Excellence in Energy and Sustainability. As her main communication tool for the curriculum, Chloe launched a biweekly newsletter about sustainability and climate change, which first went to a handful of contacts and then on to over LACCD’s 14,000 LACCD stakeholders. The distribution list continued to grow as people have added themselves. Chloe also put together a series of talks on climate action and climate justice in SoCal, attended by students, District stakeholders, partner organizations and community members of the general public.

​Asked about the highlights of her Fellowship year, Chloe cites the communications program, completion of a greenhouse gas inventory for one of the campuses, plus experience with grant writing and policy work, mentoring and supervising an intern, and working with a wide range of people from students to facilities staff to engineers, professors, and other professionals. 
Picture
Chloe created video tutorials to teach students how to save energy at home
Getting in on the ground floor

Chloe finished her Fellowship in January 2021 and went on to work on sustainability initiatives for a construction company in LA that helps manage new construction and renovation at all nine LACCD campuses. As their sustainability coordinator, Chloe is immersed in details of data collection for LEED planning and greenhouse gas inventories. 
 
“I’m working with a new team that started just 2 -3 months ago, so this is a great opportunity to get in on ground floor,” Chloe says. “Thanks to my Fellowship experience, I’m ready to make the most of it. I have experience supervising and I’ve perfected my phone and email etiquette to support good working relationships with people very different from me. Now I feel confident working with a wide range of people to get projects done.”

SEI’s award-winning Climate Corps Fellowship program places rising climate professionals in the local government, non-profit, and private sectors to implement year-long climate change resiliency projects. Learn more about becoming a fellow or hosting an emerging professional.

3 Comments
Marina T. link
11/19/2021 12:43:52 pm

it's always nice to read about people who pay attention to climate issues. I would like if much more young people can pay attention to the environment. Climate problems are very important now, everything in the world is changing so quickly and taking care of our planet is becoming more and more urgent.

Reply
liana link
10/4/2022 01:40:22 am

thanks for info

Reply
ES Civils LTD - Groundworks - Concreting - Landscaping - Paving Local Civil Engineering Company in Lancashire link
12/1/2022 01:57:45 am

"I found this article very informative about ""Civil Engineering lancashire,Construction Company Lancashire,Civil engineering company lancashire,Concrete contractor lancashire,Landscape architect lancashire,Excavating contractor Lancashire,Paving contractor lancashire,General Contractor lancashire,
Septic tank service lancashire"". Looking forward for more informative articles like this related to <b><a href=""https://escivilsltd.co.uk/"" rel=""dofollow"">ES Civils LTD - Groundworks - Concreting - Landscaping - Paving,Local Civil Engineering Company in Lancashire</a></b>"

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    The SEI Team

    Environmental education and workforce development experts share stories from the field

    Archives

    March 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020

    Categories

    All
    Board Spotlight
    Career Pathways
    Climate Corps
    Education Resources
    Energize Careers
    Energize Colleges
    Energize Schools
    Fellow Spotlight
    School Of Environmental Leadership
    School Sustainability
    Youth Action

    RSS Feed

Get Involved

Mission

Careers

Give

Picture
Picture

Contact Us

Phone: (415) 507-2181

​Email:
sei@seiinc.org

​SEI Headquarters

100 Smith Ranch Road, Suite 124
San Rafael, CA 94903

Additional Locations

Greater New York
Los Angeles
North Carolina
​Oregon

​Sacramento
San Diego
Seattle

Connect

Subscribe to the SEI quarterly newsletter to get involved and receive updates
subscribe

SEI is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
Strategic Energy Innovations © ​2022.   Privacy Policy   Terms of Use
  • Home
  • Programs
  • Stories
  • About Us
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Our Team
    • Media
    • Get Involved
    • Careers
    • Partners
    • Our Board
    • Our History
    • Contact
  • Give