As an intern there were many thoughts which began to float around my head when I first began; What shall I wear? Will I be good enough? How does my boss like their coffee? There are also many tasks I thought I would be asked to do, for example; file, smile and make coffee. Of which I have so far done two of those, smile because I am enjoying myself and I make coffee…for myself.
However my first week as a Sustainability Intern has proven to be quite different from what other interns have told me. To start, I found a Prada top, joined a collective brain cloud and gained a water bottle…
To start the week I was ‘shifting stuff’ to help out with the SUSU ‘Shift Your Stuff’ campaign which encourages students to rid themselves of any unwanted stuff (from clothes to printers) at the end of the year. I was therefore helping sort all the ‘stuff’ so that it could be given a second life in a new home or become something completely different (the possibilities are endless!). One amazing charity organisation I came across this week was S.C.R.A.T.C.H (Southampton City and Region Action to Combat Hardship) they came along to the sorting warehouse (aka the Cube) to collect large bulky, household items to help people start up a home again in the Southampton area. I found it very fulfilling to be involved in such a worthy cause, yet it was eye opening to see what people were willing to throw away; hence the Prada top!
But for me the best thing about this internship is the fact I can (almost continually) let my mind run, as sustainability to me feels like a game; one day there will be a solution to the problems that we are being faced with, but for the time being we are playing with many possible solutions. So this is where the collective cloud brain comes in. It means not just one person is thinking up ideas but the whole team, scribbling down the thoughts as they stream in, thinking up new solutions to the everyday problems faced with getting students involved in sustainability. This means no day is the same, new ideas can always be created and so I have learnt something new every day so far- and it has only been a week!
And of course the purple water bottle…to carry round the sustainability love wherever I go and it comes in very handy as I have a hill to walk up each morning, so it better last the 12 weeks and longer- which I am sure it will, as it is sustainable after all.