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Presenting Resources for Energy Clubs and Student Leaders: Spark Clean Energy Fellowship Projects

3/16/2015

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In September 2014, 15 undergraduate and graduate student leaders were selected from a pool of over 75 applicants to this year’s Spark Clean Energy Fellowship. The Fellows convened in Berkeley, California and Cambridge, Massachusetts for the BERC Energy Summit and MIT Energy Conference respectively. Since October, four teams have been developing nonprofit programs and resources to support student energy innovators and entrepreneurs on campuses across the U.S. On February 26, 2015, at Harvard Business School, the Fellows presented and launched their projects. 

The projects include 1) internship placements for students in growing cleantech companies, 2) a guide and sample curriculum for peer-to-peer energy education seminars, 3) best practice guides for collegiate energy clubs , and 4) an online repository for meetups, webinars, green drinks, and other relevant events.

http://www.sparkcleanenergy.org/2014-fellowship.html

JUmpstart Your Career in Clean Energy (JUCC-E)
http://www.sparkcleanenergy.org/jucce.html
Student leaders in the 2014 Spark Clean Energy Fellowship program have joined together to create a new career accelerator dubbed JUmpstart your Career in Clean Energy (JUCC-E). The four students, Christopher Frewin (Cornell University), Fernando Fuentes (Pennsylvania State University), Steve Hiltebeitel (Washington University at St. Louis), and Jennifer Williams (University of North Carolina/Duke University), brought their experience to the creation of this program, which connects exceptional students interested in clean energy to internships at growing companies. JUCC-E aims to become the most prestigious clean energy career accelerator in the nation. JUCC-E has conducted extensive outreach to identify companies engaged in energy entrepreneurship that would benefit from student internship engagement on specific projects. The accelerator then helps these affiliate companies to reach the best and brightest student applicants and provides stipends and support for these students before, during, and after their internships. These JUCC-E Fellows provide a national face and vision for the future of energy innovation both during their internships and as they return to campus with entrepreneurial experience.

Extracurricular Energy Seminars 
http://www.sparkcleanenergy.org/energy-education.html
 Three undergraduate Spark Clean Energy Fellows, Chad Wong (New York University), Evan Petkov (University of Wisconsin-Madison), and Cody Warner (Northwestern University), have teamed up to create resources for collegiate energy clubs. The rapidly innovative field of clean energy demands that students understand the technical, social, and business aspects of the energy field. This team’s project aims to expand multidisciplinary energy conversation across college campuses.

At Northwestern University, in Evanston, IL, undergraduate and graduate students host seminars on the business, policy, and technology of energy. These “peer to peer” seminars are widely attended and provide a breadth of topics related to energy, engaging students from many fields. The Spark Clean Energy Fellows developed a 'do-it-yourself' guide for undergraduate and graduate energy clubs to cultivate their own seminars and discussions. Existing or developing clubs can implement such a seminar series, as it centers on not-for-credit, one-hour weekly meetings in a peer-to-peer discussion environment.

Reflective Energy: Energy Club Best Practices 
http://www.sparkcleanenergy.org/reflectiveenergy.html
 John Romankiewicz (University of California, Berkeley), Sahas Singh (Georgia Tech), Parag Gupta (Northwestern University), and Davis Saltonstall (New York University) designed a resource they call “Reflective Energy”. The project has two parts: 1) a white paper on energy club best practices and 2) an online database of energy club profiles and activities. These materials will help energy clubs across the nation examine and increase their club’s impact. The Reflective Energy resources can be found here: 

http://www.sparkcleanenergy.org/reflectiveenergy.html

The white paper introduces methods that all energy clubs, new and old, could implement to map their university’s energy landscape and campus needs with respect to energy education and engagement. The document offers ideas for assessing and increasing a club’s impact as well as strategies for organizational improvement to help club’s achieve their vision. It includes full case studies of energy clubs at University of California, Berkeley (the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative) and Georgia Tech (the Energy Club at Georgia Tech).

On the Reflective Energy website, each club profile contains information on the club's activities and structure, the university's regional context, and information about how the club plans to increase its impact. Student clubs can add their profiles to the page by downloading this template and emailing it to Parag Gupta (paragguptaphd@gmail.com). In the activities database, energy clubs from around the country can contribute ideas of potential events and programs and also get new ideas for such activities. Clubs can submit individual activities for the database using this form.

“Nexus”: Professional Development Resources for Students in Energy
http://www.sparkcleanenergy.org/nexus.html
 The fellowship team, comprised of Maria Jiang (Cornell University), Doug Stiegler (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Deep Shah (The Ohio State University), and Lauren Shum (Duke University), teamed up to further Spark’s mission of empowering the next generation of clean energy leaders. They have developed a website that organizes and presents curated professional development resources for college students in a simple, chronologically sorted website. The website informs students of opportunities to learn, engage and network with energy experts, industry professionals, and like-minded students. The site features career resources such as conferences, competitions, webinars, workshops, local events, and professional programs. The site will soon be sortable for students to narrow down results to particular event types, locations, and sectors. This professional development resource for students interested clean energy simplifies the search for those looking to engage in the industry and allow them allows students to expand their networks towards new and exciting careers.
 
If you or your organization is interested in featuring content on Spark Clean Energy’s resource tool, submit an inquiry at http://www.sparkcleanenergy.org/contact.html. Content is aggregated from internet sources or by direct submission and curated by a Spark Clean Energy staffer.
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