Local Results, National Recognition

Already a hit among students and clean energy companies across the Commonwealth, MassCEC's Clean Energy Internship Program has recently been racking up the hardware.

Earlier this fall, the program, which funds internships for college students and recent graduates at clean energy companies, was named State and Local Government Initiative of the Year by the International Renewable Energy Council (IREC) during its prestigious 3iAwards, handed out at the Solar Power International conference in Las Vegas. Receiving this honor is no small feat, considering that the best and brightest programs from across the country all come out to compete for this sought-after award.

As if that wasn't enough, just today the program brought home one of the Clean Energy States Alliance’s SLICE awards, ranking it among the best programs in the country at accelerating the development of clean energy technologies.

Since its inception in 2011, the program has been a win-win for students and the companies at which they intern. Students gain invaluable on-the-job working experience as they prepare for clean energy careers, while host companies receive help as they grow their businesses, with the added bonus of knowing that they are helping to train the next generation of clean energy workers.

The program has already placed 952 interns at hundreds of clean energy companies across the Commonwealth, with the number of interns and companies participating growing every session!

The national recognition comes at a perfect time for the program, which just launched its spring 2015 session, which now features a new electronic-based application to help expedite the internship selection process for students and employers alike. The program’s success thus far, coupled with improvements that continue to be made with each passing session, went a long way in proving its intrinsic value to the IREC and CESA judges.

Having two major national awards under its belt begs the question: What award will this program end up winning next?

You know, good things do come in threes...