My Experience as a Student Fellow with the County’s Sustainability Team

08/18/23

Guest author: Diana Jamaleddine, Student Fellow

This past year I participated in #CaliforniansforAll College Corps, a program that provides college students an opportunity to address social problems in their community while being able to graduate on time with less debt.

In order to achieve this, College Corps connects college students with host sites in the community or “community partners” to complete a total of 450 service and training hours. As an Environmental Science major with a minor in Environmental Studies at the University of San Diego (USD), I was excited for the chance to connect with my college and San Diego community whilst gaining work experience in the environmental field.

Upon interviewing with College Corps, each student had the chance to express their specific interests and was placed with a community partner accordingly. After conveying my passion for environmental planning and sustainable development, I was excited to be placed with the County of San Diego’s Sustainability Planning Division. Although I knew little about the role I was about to step into or the scope of work that the Sustainability team did, I was eager to discover all that the County had to offer over the following year.

Student Fellows In SustainabilityDiana Jamaleddine

As a Student Fellow working with the Sustainability Planning Division, I participated in a variety of tasks - from researching electric generators to presenting about climate change at high schools throughout the unincorporated county. I also became familiar with the team working on implementing the County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), who introduced me to the sustainability projects they were working on and made sure to include me in any efforts I expressed an interest in.

Even more, I was able to develop my university Senior Thesis throughout the experience, as I collected public feedback from high school youth during CAP outreach events, to investigate how youth climate change mentality varies with different environmental and socioeconomic characteristics represented in a particular community.

I can now confidently say that I have improved upon my writing and presentation skills and am more confident when interacting with others in a professional setting. I have learned about the program and policy development process from concept to implementation, and in particular the importance of community outreach as an essential step.

All in all, I could not be more grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the Sustainability Planning team this past year. Participating in College Corps at USD was a great experience in itself, but the true highlight of this Fellowship was my placement with the County as my first step into environmental planning in local government. Although I am sad to see my time with the program come to an end, I am excited to hear that the County will be participating again as a community host for the second year of College Corps and will expand to have three Fellows for three different teams. I am lastly honored to have made a contribution to the County’s climate change efforts and will undoubtedly take my newfound knowledge, skills, and experiences into all future academic and professional endeavors