Opportunity Knocks!

Renewable Energy Vermont, what does this title entail? How many solar panels and wind turbines will I be working on? In fact, the job description is much more difficult than installing a field of panels or climbing 250 + feet inside of a turbine. Olivia Cambell Andersen, the Executive Director of Renewable Energy Vermont, is tasked with long, complicated meetings where everything she stands for becomes a twisted tornado of paperwork, rules, and jurisdictions. Thankfully, Olivia is not alone on her journey. There are multitudes of other Clean Energy organizations that rally for the same cause as Renewable Energy Vermont. I was introduced to state representatives from respective northeastern states other than Vermont, such as Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire at the North Eastern Clean Energy Conference (NECEC) in Boston, Massachusetts. Every Representative prepared slides divulging new progress, and a few shortcomings each state faced in their fight for Clean/Renewable energy. All in […]

I had never given an injection to an organism, cared for an injury on anything other than a human, and I had no idea what went on behind the scenes of veterinary medicine. Before this experience with the North Carolina State University Veterinary School’s Turtle Team, I knew that I wanted work in a field that benefits marine wildlife and protects the marine environment. However, I have yet to fully identify what role to assume in doing so. One way I can accomplish this goal is through attending vet school and studying to work in marine life medicine, and I witnessed a glimpse of this path during this externship. I had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Lewbart, a professor of zoological medicine, and his students at Turtle Team. Within the past five days, I learned how to properly care and handle different species of turtles, give injections and calculate dosages, clean and bandage wounds, […]

I traveled to Houston, Texas in mid-June to spend a week with Quenby Jackson Mott ’89. She is the Head Upper School Dean at Kinkaid School, a private school with about 1,400 students.  I attended a school similar to Kinkaid during my middle and high school years (Bullis School), and I hope to return there to teach one day. I specifically expressed interest in this externship because Kinkaid is a private school, and I wanted to learn what it is like to be an administrator at a private school. I learned just that, in addition to picking up a few pieces of life advice along the way. I spent a lot of time in the Dean’s Office during the week. I got the unique opportunity to sit in on phone calls and meetings to get a true sense of what it is like to be an administrator. I expected that there would be a lot of […]

Before this summer’s externship, I had somewhat broadened my legal perspective. I had shadowed a hometown tax attorney. I had attended a dinner with two Johnson and Johnson patent lawyers. I had even witnessed Reading, Pennsylvania court proceedings as I observed a Gettysburg Alumnus working as an assistant district attorney. This may seem like a notable list of experiences, but for me, it was all so recent. Less than a year ago, I was certain I would become a doctor, or at the very least, pursue a graduate degree in science (thus putting my biology major and chemistry minor to use in a more traditional career path). I felt very much behind in my legal knowledge, and after each legal opportunity, I wanted to learn more. I had less than a year left of college, and only one year under my belt of shadowing various legal professions. At Gettysburg, I had taken one politics course, […]

This past week I have spent my time at Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). YALSA is a non-profit association that helps support libraries in helping teens by providing them with the resources necessary to promote teen reading and learning. YALSA is a division of the American Library Association (ALA) and is located in the same building as the rest of ALA. Their office is located in Chicago so this externship provided me with an opportunity to visit Chicago for the first time. It was a really memorable experience, and while I was at first nervous about being in a city that is huge and unfamiliar, I quickly adapted. The subway system isn’t too confusing and google maps became my best friend. YALSA’s office building is located really close to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, which is a huge stretch of stores and malls like I had never seen before. My first day at YALSA, I checked […]

My summer externship was with Atlantic (USA) LLC, a commodities broker located in the Financial District of New York City. As a branch of a global company known as Ecom Agroindustrial Corporation, Atlantic is primarily responsible for buying and selling coffee and cocoa from countries all around the world such as Brazil, Colombia, Uganda, Vietnam, and many others on behalf of their clients. Not only is Atlantic responsible for solely purchasing and selling coffee and cocoa, the company is also responsible for working with transportation companies, insurance companies, cupping (sampling) the coffee, and storing the products if they are not directly shipped to one of Atlantic’s many clients such as Maxwell, Folgers, Tim Hortons, or Starbucks while simultaneously obeying the myriad of regulations placed on this industry. In other words, Atlantic is heavily involved in most aspects of the coffee and cocoa industry. My shadowing experience with Atlantic (USA) LLC was truly remarkable. I learned […]

Shadowing Dr. Greenblatt for the week was an amazing opportunity that greatly exceeded my expectations. From the informative tour of Burlington that he gave my parents and myself, to letting me feel the massive tumor in the abdomen of a patient- I could not have asked for a better experience. Not only that, but with the combination of his academic and clinical work, it was as if I was shadowing two different people. It was exceptionally informative to see these two aspects of the scientific world, and it was even better to see how one person could be so brilliant in both. I got the chance to sit in on meetings with doctors specializing in various fields and it was an honor to be in the presence of such brilliant minds. Dr. Greenblatt also took the time to explain, at great length, his genetic research with scientists across the globe. It was satisfying to see […]

In today’s world people are constantly looking to technology to answer their questions, provide news, problem solve, and find products. Six billion searches are said to be conducted daily on Google alone, and ninety-one percent of all clicks go to the first results page that Google provides. So, how does a company ensure that their products are on that first results page and in the position necessary to generate traffic to the destination that they want? This week I worked under the direction of Kelly Downey, VP of Digital and Shopper Solutions, at Phillips in Stamford, Connecticut. I learned about how companies bid on particular search words in order to ensure that their content is seen, and how significant placement is depending on factors such as whether the consumer is using a phone or computer to access the search. The week was extremely eye-opening as there are so many things that go on behind the […]

When I first came into contact with the Rava family, I met Jon as we came in for our freshman football season at Gettysburg. His older brother Joe was a senior on the football team. Throughout that first season I was able to meet the rest of the family, including Dr. Rava. When I found out from Jon that his father was a dentist, I always found myself asking Jon questions about his fathers experience and life as a dentist because as a health science major at Gettysburg, dentistry is one of the main fields that I have been working toward since my high school days. As my friendship with Jon grew, I figured it was time to try and receive the opportunity to learn under Dr. Rava himself and find out what is required to become a successful dentist. Therefore, through great aid from Career Development and my career mentor, Rebecca Barth, along with […]