Post written by Arushi Surve, OEEC Summer 2024 Intern

Editor's Note: In our previous blog post we introduced you to Arushi Surve, our summer intern who started her own environmental nonprofit, Mission Green Global. This time Arushi wrote about her internship experience and how it will benefit her career plans.

Did you know the tilt angle of solar panels is dependent on its location’s latitude and longitude? I certainly didn’t – I learned this fact during a solar panel tour at the Pender Building, one of many incredible experiences I got to have through the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination (OEEC). 

My name is Arushi Surve, and I was a summer intern with OEEC through the Fairfax County Youth Leadership Program (FCYLP). Though I knew that our county did a lot about addressing the environment, I didn’t know how. Fortunately, the main objective of FCYLP is to teach motivated high school students about their government through direct involvement. As I started working with OEEC, I was able to research ongoing environmental projects happening around me and discover the impact OEEC has on all residents of the county by working on community development, resilience, and so much more.

I’m a rising senior at Chantilly High School and passionate about the environment. I grew up in Fairfax County, but also moved a lot, across two continents, several states, and nine cities. It was through the acclimations to these different places that I started seeing one common issue: the environment. I became extremely passionate about the issue, diving into National Geographic magazines about wildlife and climate change in first grade. I knew I wanted to make a difference—from starting recycling in my family and giving up plastic bottles, to now running my own environmental nonprofit, Mission Green Global, I love working to solve environmental challenges.

So, when I saw that I had the chance to do so through the Youth Leadership Program, I immediately signed up. I could not be happier with this decision. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work at OEEC as it has been a wonderful experience. I was able to take my love for creating environmental change and see how it could be implemented at the county level by working with passionate professionals in the environmental and energy field. With my coworkers and supervisors and their relentless support, I worked on fascinating projects and felt like I was making a difference every day – some of my favorite projects included helping with social media outreach, creating blogs, and drafting a Capstone research paper about electrification in home energy use. 

Most importantly, though, I learned about the various aspects of the environment and energy that OEEC addresses and the holistic approach the office takes to tackling sustainability in the county. From electric vehicle adoption to solar panel installation, home energy audit recommendations, plastic bag use reduction, and environmental awareness, the talented OEEC staff works on so many projects in such a short span of time, something I was incredibly impressed with and inspired by. This internship has grown my love for the environment even further and I’ve realized that this is what I want to do in my career and beyond.

Arushi Surve is a student at Chantilly High School and will be graduating in the spring of 2025. She is a 2024 summer intern at OEEC and the founder of Mission Green Global, a non-profit organization aimed towards educating and advocating for environmental issues.

Climate Matters is the blog of Fairfax County’s Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination, where we share stories, insights and information related to climate change and environmental sustainability. Posts are written by knowledgeable and passionate OEEC staff members and guest authors. To read all blog posts, visit Climate Matters.