Author: stro170

Perhaps the biggest takeaway I have from my time at the Massachusetts Sierra Club is that being able to spend your time working for a cause that you believe in is a privilege in itself. My supervisor has drilled into our heads time and time again that not everyone is in a position to accept a job that brings them fulfillment. Oftentimes, a major component of social justice work entails supporting underserved communities. Furthermore, many (though not all) of the people who work for organizations in social justice causes do not share the same backgrounds as those they are committing their work to. 

In my opinion, this shows that one of the most important character traits to carry in social justice work is to remain sensitive to the fact that your opinions should be subject to change based upon feedback from members of the community you are serving. This all being said, I should note that there are of course cases in which social justice work can be done within the community it is trying to benefit, but even then, there is an aspect of giving oneself up for the greater cause. 

When it comes to the general world of work, this internship with the Sierra Club has shown me that different offices can have wildly varied expectations of the amount of time and effort you put into your work. At the Sierra Club, I found that my supervisor was not too fussy about the specific hours I worked, nor the number of hours. She cared far more about how much we were putting in and getting out of the internship in terms of our level of commitment to our projects. She trusted us to get our work done, and when we didn’t, that was on us. 

This is extremely different from how my past jobs and internships have been. In every other job I have held, we had to clock in and clock out at a certain time despite whether or not we were attentive to our work that entire timespan. I had far fewer collaborative projects, and less general freedom overall. While that method may work for some, I really appreciated our supervisor’s methods in this respect. I believe that her expectations for us fostered a lot of self-motivation and personal commitment, which are essential components when it comes to incorporating passion into your work life.

 If I could give my pre-summer at Sierra Club self or someone else embarking on their internship a piece of advice, I would say understand that people are, at the end of the day, only human. Though your boss or supervisor may be far more established than you are, there is something innovative and valuable that you can bring to the table as a young person in the workforce. Though I do think there is a line of professionalism that should not be crossed, the world of social justice needs to move forward and if everyone with new ideas remains silent, we will remain complacent. 

Over these past two years as a student at Brandeis, it is fair to say that I’ve realized my college experience is defined just as much by my learning experiences outside of the classroom as it is by my experiences within a lecture setting. Perhaps the most important skill I’ve built since becoming a Brandeis student is the ability to take what I have learned from my coursework and incorporate that knowledge and understanding into how I live my life. The entire purpose of learning, in my opinion, is not to merely memorize facts and figures, but to gain an enriched perspective through the lens of a given person’s field of study. Bridging this gap between life and information learned from class is certainly a feat in itself, and potentially the most valuable skill I have attempted to master thus far.

As an intern at the Sierra Club, a lot of the work I am receiving is a small cog in the works of a much larger project. Therefore, it can oftentimes feel challenging to understand how what I am doing is significant in combating climate change and climate injustices. For example, one project I am working on with a fellow intern will ultimately involve creating a map to display disparities in solar installations per capita in predominantly white neighborhoods as compared to predominantly black neighborhoods, predominantly LatinX neighborhoods, predominantly Asian neighborhoods, and neighborhoods without a racial majority in six cities around the country. The goal of this project is to have a visual display, which can relay that regardless of class and regardless of solar potential, white neighborhoods are the most likely to have the greatest solar per capita.

While the project as a whole is extremely exciting and seemingly rewarding if we are able to succeed, the fact remains that these past few weeks have mainly consisted of me and my fellow intern collecting all sorts of data, merging files, and spending lots of time performing simple math equations. With projects like this one, it is quite easy to feel frustrated by a lack of obvious progress towards our overarching objectives.

Throughout the early stages of these sorts of projects, I have thought back to my time at Brandeis in classes such as statistics and biology. In these courses, I learned about valuable scientific discoveries, discoveries that I could connect to my own life or to the world around me. At the same time, I oftentimes received works that seemed far from tangible or meaningful to the bigger picture. But I came to grasp that these smaller steps of understanding are just as integral to creating great change.

If nobody focused on the more monotonous sides of work–the data collection, organizing the Excel sheets, calculating averages–the larger scale goals could never be reached. My time at Brandeis has taught me that there is always a way to bridge this gap; it all depends on your mindset. So, during my time at Sierra Club, I am choosing to view my internship tasks as a step in the direction of a seeable difference, but I am also trying to understand that not everything I do is going to be a part of the next great breakthrough in climate change-related disparities.

Since coming to Brandeis, the need for environmental justice has become increasingly apparent to me not only through my studies, but through conversations with friends, and in passing thoughts. Yet, the reality remains that I do not have a solid definition for what environmental justice means, nor do I know my role in how to best support those suffering most from environmental injustices.

When I embarked on my search for summer internships, I was confident that I wanted to find an organization where I could develop my understanding of what environmental injustices look like, and how to become an ally rather than a bystander. When I came across the Sierra Club’s mission statement, I was immediately drawn to the last line in particular: “to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.”

A key aspect of the Sierra Club’s objective is to take a stance on both conservation and preservation, and on human rights. While Sierra Club continues to hold outdoor activities, emphasizing the physical and mental health benefits of getting outside, the organization is equally as eager to involve itself in campaigns regarding zero waste and green transportation.

My supervisor, Aileen Kelly, made clear that in recent years, the Sierra Club has received criticism for attending events such as the Women’s March and for participating in rallies for immigrant rights and abortion rights. “They tell us to pick a lane,” she recounts, and follows by announcing to the group that in order to be an ally for people facing environmental injustices, you have to recognize the plethora of other injustices these very same communities face. You have to educate yourself on who will be most impacted by the effects of climate change in the imminent future, and you have to create lasting relationships with people outside of your immediate circles to do so.

One thing that has struck me thus far about nonprofit work is that a lot of it is in constant flow. The Sierra Club’s Massachusetts chapter includes only five full time staff members, and therefore they rely on volunteers and interns to help out. In these past three weeks, I have been assigned an array of projects ranging from researching the amount of solar on rooftops in various communities, helping to launch a letter to the editor campaign on the topic of protected land, and event planning.

Moreover, the Massachusetts chapter of the Sierra Club allows the interns to attend hearings at the statehouse and the staff has been extraordinarily kind in allowing each of us time to sit down and speak with people throughout the office who work on specific areas of individual interest.

I am grateful and excited to learn more about how to be an ally for those facing environmental injustices in my time to come at the Massachusetts chapter of the Sierra Club. And, just as importantly, I will now go forth in my pursuits knowing that no good can come from staying in your lane.