Sustainable energy engineering internships for community college and high school students

As a result of a partnership between the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) and a Hispanic-serving Institution, Hartnell College, a micro-grid and test bed facility are being constructed at Hartnell´s Alisal campus. The facility will provide a real-world student training center on renewable energy technologies where students can participate in research to develop new, experimental renewable energy generation systems. Over the next several years, Hartnell´s Sustainable Engineering laboratory courses will be transitioned to focus on the microgrid and test-bed. Related courses and lab modules developed at UCSC will also be integrated into the program. An early outcome of this collaborative partnership was the internship support of teams of high school and community college students working with UCSC graduate students on several different sustainable energy projects over the summer of 2012. Program mentors and interns all reported a high degree of satisfaction with their internship experience.