Over 100 students attend Clean Energy Symposium

It’s not often that clean energy is the focus of an entire day, but the 2016 Student Clean Energy Symposium was able to make this happen for over 100 students and 20 clean energy employers on Friday, December 2.

The morning of the Symposium kicked off with a welcome from MassCEC CEO Stephen Pike and Peter Fox-Penner, director of BU’s Institute for Sustainable Energy. Following were panel discussions, including solar photovoltaic, water innovation, and energy storage panels.

At lunch students were able to reflect while talking amongst themselves and with mentors from MassCEC as well as other clean energy companies. Mentoring and networking were the main themes of lunch, leading into a smooth transition for the internship fair, which was by far the most interactive portion of the afternoon.  

The timing of the symposium perfectly coincided with the enrollment period of the spring session for MassCEC’s award winning Internship Program, as employers were able to begin searching for candidates for both the spring and summer 2017 sessions. Becky Wasserman from Resonant Energy, a community based solar developer, reflected that the event was “a great opportunity for like-minded folks investing in talent.”

Marcela, a student from UMass Boston, described her experience at the Symposium as vitally important for undergraduates because it presented “different views of the outside world” rather than just a classroom perspective.