Internships

Annie Weinmann ’12

I worked this summer at Isles in Trenton. My personal goal for the internship was to ­explore a career in an environmental non-profit focused on food and sustainability. I went into the internship hoping to learn about the impact and importance of urban gardens to uplift cities like Trenton. While much of the work felt hands-on and less ­intellectual, I found that by the end of the summer, I had learned a lot about both aspects of the ­organization. I helped organize the garden’s CSA (community sponsored agriculture) on a weekly basis, both maintaining the garden and providing information about the produce to the shareholders. Other than working in the garden, the interns worked on a research project we requested to start a process for making community gardens ­self-sustained. Ultimately, we hope that the gardens will initiate the formation of a ­co-op where the produce will be sold to corner stores helping eliminate food deserts ­within New Jersey. My supervisor took the interns to several meetings when we requested more ­information about initiatives and concerns of the organization. These meetings helped me ­understand how important connections between non-profits are to achieve an ­overall goal. While I do not plan to build upon this internship for my thesis, I do hope to pursue a career in sustainable food of some sort, and this internship broadened my ­horizons about where potential opportunities might be.