PowerSave Green Campus: Graduates Bring Sustainability Skills to Current Jobs, Says 2012 Survey

Since 2004, the Alliance to Save Energy’s PowerSave Campus program has prepared college students for the green workforce. According to a recent poll of alumni, the vast majority of PowerSave Campus interns use the skills they learned in the program – including how to contribute to sustainability – in their professional lives.

About the PowerSave Campus Program

By overseeing energy saving projects, giving presentations to professionals and their peers, and working as a team toward program goals, PowerSave Campus alumni leave the program with invaluable skills that make them competitive in any job market.

Due in large part to the support of the Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, SoCal Gas and Electric, and San Diego Gas and Electric utilities in California, the Alliance to Save Energy’s PowerSave Campus program aims to address gaps in energy-related workforce training.  Regardless of their field of study, students leave the internship program with professional skills and the confidence to encourage sustainability in their place of employment.  

Alumni Survey Results

Each fall the PowerSave Campus program polls its graduates on their professional accomplishments. Feedback from the 55 respondents to the most recent survey (sent via email in August 2012) paint a colorful picture of life beyond the undergraduate degree. From graduate students to department directors, living across the nation and around the world, these former interns are continuing to make essential contributions to their workplaces and communities. In fact, 98% of PowerSave alumni polled are contributing to sustainability in their professional lives. Moreover, nearly three-fourths of those working consider themselves to be employed in a green career.

By organizing two state-wide convergences each year, the PowerSave Green Campus program provides ample opportunity for its interns to practice their professional speaking and networking skills.  Results from the survey show the long-term effects of such practice.  Of those surveyed, 96% of PowerSave Green Campus alumni continue to use skills they gained during their internship in their current positions. 

Preparations for life after college

Statistics and survey results can only say so much. Take it from former interns themselves: The PowerSave Campus internship program works.

"The PowerSave Green Campus program was an amazing stepping stone into the real-world workforce. I couldn't have pictured a better opportunity to build and sharpen my sustainability knowledge, assessment skills, marketing creativity, and professionalism. I believe a large part of my PowerSave Green Campus experience prepared me and got me the job I have today." 

— Amina Ahmad, a current graduate associate at the Walt Disney Company and former PowerSave (formerly Green) Campus intern at UC San Diego