The Energy and Environment Expo this past Friday was an enormous success. Held at Harvard’s newly opened Innovation Lab, the Expo featured 16 energy programs—comprised of 3 schools and 13 companies—and was crowded with interested students throughout the entire afternoon. 

One browsing sophomore at the College, Alexandra, expressed her interest in SolSolution because of its dedication to social outreach as well as clean energy. “Their mission is incredible—taking the money usually used for electricity and putting it back into the funding of schools,” she wowed. SolSolution advertised the “family” style nature of their small team, which is currently looking for graduating seniors to fill spots in a variety of fields including marketing, fundraising and communications. This kind of small team dynamic appeals to students because it guarantees hands-on work in which everyone gets to contribute, even the least experienced employees.

Alexandra—an Earth and Planetary Sciences concentrator—was impressed by the fair as a whole because of its particular emphasis on this sometimes unrepresented job field. “I definitely want to get an internship working with energy or environmental causes this summer,” she explained. “Which is why I’m so happy that Harvard is focusing this event on energy companies – not only because I personally am interested, but because I think it is an area that more Harvard students should look into.” Many students, including Alexandra, were especially pleased at the range of environmental organizations present at the fair, which spanned from graduate schools to environmental consulting firms.

CleanTech was another company very popular among students. CleanTech is an organization run entirely by volunteers that work on five-month projects in regions across the country. Representatives from CleanTech present at the fair boasted the benefits of volunteers working in small teams, and the satisfaction from getting to visibly help move the program along. Representatives also promised the benefits of getting to know investors and technology people outside of the company through CleanTech’s projects. “It is a very effective and fun group of people to work with,” they said. “As an intern, it will give you opportunities to interact with experts in all areas, like legal services and investors.”

SolSolution and CleanTech certainly were not the only companies to impress the curious students visiting this fair. The excitement was tangible: students left the iLab buzzing with an eagerness to look deeper into the positions offered by the companies from the fair, as well as an eagerness to look more closely at other positions available in this intriguing career field.

— Julia Eger, ‘14

The Harvard Energy & Environment Expo was sponsored by the FAS Office of Career Services and the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and cosponsored by the New England Clean Energy Council. Looking for additional opportunities in Energy and the Environment? Check out the companion student blog: “Explore Careers in Energy & the Environment.” And for further fair coverage, check out Julia’s “Top Ten Organizations” she was excited to see at the fair.