I think I might start out by introducing myself and explaining the reason for this blog, before launching off into all the interesting stuff I've come across since working here!
I was born and grew up in South Africa, where I studied French and German at university. When my dearest one got an opportunity to do a PhD in the Netherlands, I learned Dutch. We got married, and I joined him there, where I had the pleasure of living in the beautiful town of Delft for five years. While there, I built up a career as a translator, translating mainly from Dutch to English.
I think there are two professions in particular that are highly suitable for curious people: translation and journalism. You have to be interested in a very wide range of topics, and also retain the terminology used to write convincingly about them. I devour news magazines, articles on the Internet, news on the radio... I want to know, and I want to understand how the problems of the world work - and I want to contribute to the solutions.
When we moved to the US (my husband got a job at NOAA - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), I started looking for a job that 1) made use of my international background and 2) made the world a better place in some way. A friend who was thinking with me on the job search found a vacancy for the position of office administrator here at the Ecologic Institute in DC, and the organization seemed like a really good fit: international, and working on something that I thought about a lot and was concerned about (energy issues and climate change) - and just down the road from where we lived! I put together an application - and then promptly caught a virus that knocked me flat for 2 weeks. Shortly after I got better, I was in the Dupont Circle area for another reason, and as I had looked up the address, thought I'd pop by to see whether they had filled the vacancy yet. As it turned out, the HR lady was there from Germany, and they were conducting interviews for the position that very afternoon. Michael Mehling, the president, invited my into his office, and we had an impromptu interview that soon showed that I was definitely not suitable for the office administrator position, as I had no experience in financial management or HRM. As it turned out, however, they were going to be advertizing two intern positions, and they suggested I apply for one of those. I did - and I was offered a position here, which I started at the beginning of April.
I feel really fortunate to be working here. Not only is it a very small office (three permanent employees, the office administrator, and two interns) with people I would want as my friends even if they weren't my colleagues, but I also come into contact with some extremely interesting information. Part of it comes in the form of papers that I edit for Dominic Marcellino (who also directly supervises me and Shanyn, the other intern), but also in the form of the many discussions, debates and lectures that I get to attend and write up afterwards. This is how the idea of a blog started: this stuff is too good to not share! Often, it involves views "from the horse's mouth" - debates between experts in their fields, information right at the source. Sometimes, it's just stuff that I find really interesting to know (and suspect you might too). My only regret is that I didn't start with this sooner, but I'll try to post one entry a day for the next while, drawing on past and present experience, and so still share some of the fun facts from the past two months.
My other objective with this blog is that I hope that it might someday become official: that it will be incorporated on the Ecologic site, perhaps paired with another one by an intern in Berlin, so that people can read about the inner workings of a thinktank, and specifically the kind of work that Ecologic is doing. I would like it to be an accessible point of entry for potential clients, giving them an idea of the kinds of services that the Institute offers, but also for anyone interested in environmental policy issues.
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