KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 12, 2020 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Mary Ellen Hawkins describes herself as an artist and environmentalist, but she hadn\u2019t put much thought into the topic of sustainable energy production until she was named a 溏心vlog免费B站 Energy Fellow last winter. Now it is forcing her to rethink her future plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have a passion for energy issues before I got the fellowship,\u201d said Hawkins, a Newport resident majoring in environmental and natural resource economics. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t something I knew much about. I\u2019ve always been a proponent of environmental justice, and I\u2019ve always felt it\u2019s important to focus on revitalizing cities to be environmentally friendly, but I didn\u2019t realize how big a role energy played in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since January, Hawkins has spent her fellowship at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Coastal Resources Center interviewing researchers, organizing stakeholder meetings, and maintaining a website about offshore renewable energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked in IT at CCRI for five years, so I have lots of experience with web development and IT support,\u201d she said. \u201cOur goal is to turn this website into a one-stop shop for all kinds of people who want to learn how Rhode Island is playing this huge role in offshore renewable energy with the first offshore wind farm in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
In collaboration with 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Resources Center staff members Jen McCann and Sue Kennedy, Hawkins spends most of her days creating content for the website, including writing feature stories and producing videos. Her primary focus has been on creating an \u201cAsk the Experts\u201d page featuring interviews with local experts on a wide range of related topics, from the impact of wind turbines on birds and whales to questions about the permitting of future wind farms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love the team that I get to work with,\u201d she said of McCann and Kennedy. \u201cAnd I love having a sense of responsibility and ownership for the project. It\u2019s really inspiring to get to learn about all these happenings about my home state. I\u2019m always telling my friends about what I\u2019m learning about offshore wind. It\u2019s a super empowering project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawkins is one of 19 溏心vlog免费B站 Energy Fellows working at companies, government agencies and other organizations on a variety of energy issues, from renewables and energy efficiency to green building design and energy education. Established in 2008, the program meets the growing need for experiential learning opportunities for students interested in addressing real-world energy issues from a sustainability or efficiency perspective.<\/p>\n
A recipient of the Miss Swinburne Scholarship, Hawkins \u2013 also known as Mel \u2013 spends much of her free time writing songs and performing folk rock music around the region with her band, Mel and the Unruly Roots. Her debut single, \u201cWomen,\u201d garnered wide recognition and received generous airplay on local college radio.<\/p>\n
As she looks to her future, Hawkins said that her fellowship has pointed her in potential directions she would never have otherwise considered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really opened up a door that I didn\u2019t even know existed,\u201d she said. \u201cWorking with the team at the Coastal Resources Center has been great. I\u2019m now integrating what I\u2019ve learned about offshore renewable energy with my IT background and my other passions, and we\u2019ll see where it leads.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor now,\u201d Hawkins added, \u201cI\u2019m riding the wave of my future and going with the flow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 12, 2020 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Mary Ellen Hawkins describes herself as an artist and environmentalist, but she hadn\u2019t put much thought into the topic of sustainable energy production until she was named a 溏心vlog免费B站 Energy Fellow last winter. Now it is forcing her to rethink her future plans. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-75654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}