This is a guest post from Tyré, one of our wonderful summer interns. As he says goodbye to the ACE season and hello to his final fall as a Cal Bear at UC Berkeley, we asked him to tell us, and you, how his summer at ACE went.

Hello, my name is Tyré Ellison and I’m a 5^th year at the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Social Welfare. Before I take you through my summer experience at ACE I first wanted to share the news about how I found out about this great experience. I first heard about the Alliance for Climate Education (also known as ACE) from a friend, Lauren Brener, who’s the Summer Internship Coordinator for my academic scholarship program. I told Lauren that I wanted to gain some experience in a non-profit organization this summer and she informed me about ACE. She connected me with Ben Swift, who was the Data Coordinator. I interviewed for the internship position and next thing you know (BOOM!) I was welcomed to the ACE family. My summer at ACE has been a great experience.

At ACE I have had the privilege to work amongst outgoing, passionate, motivated, intellectual, and intelligent people. The work atmosphere at ACE has been unbelievable. People love to have fun and joke around, but most importantly they all are determined in getting the necessary work done that keeps this organization alive. ACE is very motivated towards educating and INSPIRING youth about the issues of global climate change. This is why I wanted to work at ACE, primarily because it helps give me an opportunity to give back to youth. As a student-athlete at Cal I sometimes don’t have time to give back to communities as much as I like. However, when I do have the opportunity to do so, I do. ACE has helped me take full advantage of that.

Although, my internship required me to be in the office and not actually on a community-level working hands-on with youth, I still made a change. My work at ACE has allowed me to contribute to the cause of the organization, which is to INSPIRE youth. At ACE I learned how to use Salesforce, which is a database that is very useful for organization. I used Salesforce to help organize demographic data for schools. In addition, I assisted the Student Action Program (StAP) team in organizing and matching starter grants with Project Completion Forms (PCFs). I also had the opportunity to sit-in on meetings and learn about the management of a non-profit from the inside-out.

The tools that I gained from working at ACE this summer will benefit me in my future. It will allow me to understand how to properly run an efficient and effective organization, while still inspiring youth and making a difference in their lives.

I plan to continue seeking higher education and to follow my passion of inspiring, motivating, and making a positive change in the lives of our youth. I hope to someday start my own non-profit that’s youth-centered, that target youth from lower socio-economic communities, and that will make positive changes in their lives helping them to understand that they can overcome struggle and dream beyond.

THANK YOU ACE!

Tyré helped us with information that lets us understand what we’re doing right and where we can improve. His smarts, positive attitude and work ethic made us all fans of Tyré and we’ll be cheering for everything he does next, football season and way beyond. Thank you, Tyré.