Climate Corps Fellow Spotlight: Billie Hervas

SEI is spotlighting our amazing Climate Corps Fellows who have been working to protect our climate through a wide range of sustainability initiatives. This week we are highlighting Billie Hervas, Education and Training Fellow at the The Energy Coalition.

Billie Hervas
​Education and Training Fellow, The Energy Coalition

Give a summary of the work that you are doing through your fellowship.
I support the education and training team of The Energy Coalition by assisting in educator and student engagement. This includes presenting online events, creating STEM-based curriculums, and creating content for our social media campaigns.

What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of the job is working with the rest of the education and training team. It doesn't matter what task I am doing because I generally enjoy working with fun, passionate, and motivated people.
​
What is a recent accomplishment that you are proud of?
A recent accomplishment I am proud of is redesigning some of the marketing collateral for TEC's education and training team. Doing so reconnected me with my love for graphic design, and I feel like my work is valuable when the team uses the materials I create.

What is the most important skill or lesson that you have learned during your fellowship?
I am still learning how to speak up during virtual meetings. I'm a shy person, and meeting with my colleagues through Zoom makes it extra challenging because I don't like cutting people off while they speak. But when I finally get the courage to talk, it's not too bad. It's good to remember that team meetings generally value different ideas and feedback.

If you were a sustainable technology or item, which one would you be and why?
If I were a sustainable item, I would be locally grown fruit. I view accomplishing my goals as being able to take the time to maintain and care for my set of priorities. It's kind of like trying to grow fruit, but in this case, a locally grown one since it's more sustainable than an imported one.

Climate Corps, a flagship program of SEI, is a bridge-to-career Fellowship program that recruits and places rising climate professionals with local governments, non-profits, educational institutions, and for-profit partners to implement climate change mitigation and resiliency projects.