League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
Dale Maffett
Princeton University

I have to admit that when I originally learned about my first project for the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), I was more than a little skeptical about the cause to which I was about to dedicate my summer. I sat down in the office of my fireball of a supervisor on my initial day of my first "real" job (no more being a waitress or camp counselor), and she told me that as the State Outreach Intern I would be creating a database of trainings this summer that would be given to the State LCVs when I was finished. As I listened, nodding my head and pretending that I understood the foreign language that she seemed to be speaking to me, I could only think, what does a naïve biology major who believes her current calling in life is to save the environment have to do with "state outreach," "databases of trainings," and "state LCVs?" Had I not accepted a job with the "political arm of the environmental movement?" Where were issues, candidates, and politics? Little did I know how much I had to learn about the political side of the environmental movement.

It was not until very recently, as I listened to the President of the LCV, Deb Callahan, talk about how she reached the position that she occupies today and the importance of the LCV and LCV Education Fund in the environmental movement, that I truly realized the significance my project. As Deb outlined her focused career path that ultimately led her to her ideal occupation, I belatedly realized the importance of my own internship on two distinct levels. The first level involved my own confused projected career path. Deb shared with us the possibility that she might never have gotten her first entry level job in environmental politics had she not done a six month internship in Washington, DC her junior year in college (for which she was paid the rich sum of $600). Her story made me realize that this summer I am taking my first baby-steps into a field in which I could possibly spend the rest of my life. However, given my changeability and indecision about my future, I could easily end up spending my life saving the world from bad teeth as an orthodontist instead of saving the environment with an organization like LCV. What I do know for certain, though, is that I am presently making my first connections and learning my first lessons about the world of environmental politics, a field with which I am currently fascinated. This internship is helping me figure out what I want to do with my life even if my future does not involve the environment (though I am fairly certain it does). Knowing that I am done with my youthful summers of insignificant jobs is startling and intimidating, but at the same time it is curiously exciting to realize that my journey down the path that will shape the professional events of my life has irreversibly begun.

There was still the problem, though, with the fact that I was going to spend my summer creating a database of trainings, and I still could not really see why this was important to the environmental movement. Yes, I was learning about politics, and, yes, I was meeting people, but how did what I was doing affect the environment in any way? Deb also solved this puzzle for me. By giving these (mostly) small, state LCVs a resource to quickly and easily find quality trainings, I help to increase the capacity of each one. As these organizations in each state gain knowledge they also gain power and influence, meaning they can further reach out to environmentalists in their area and encourage them to vote. This will in turn give the environmental movement a louder and more commanding political voice on both the state and national level. The environmental movement has almost as many members as the AFL-CIO, yet it does not have near as much political clout. My project will help further the goal of LCV to mobilize an army of Green Voters and give the environment the political attention and respect it deserves.

Though it might not be what I originally expected, my internship has turned out to be exactly what I wanted. I am learning about both the direction of my future and about subjects that interest me while saving the environment. I now know how to vote environmentally responsibly, read and use a scorecard, understand the political battles of the environmental movement, and I have learned a great deal about DC in the meantime. Hopefully I have also come a little closer to figuring out what I want to do with my life as well.