Ever since she was a little girl, Addyson Barnes dreamed of interning in Washington, D.C. This summer that dream came true.
After receiving her internship with the Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship, Barnes packed her bags and headed to the nation’s capital.
Barnes, a fellow for the program, works with the Department of Energy under the Office of Fossil Energy, specifically in the Office of Clean Coal and Carbon Management.
A chemical engineering student at the University of Idaho, Barnes spent the last two summers interning for the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls. But Barnes was ready for a change.
Trying something new, Barnes was set to intern in Chile through UI’s study abroad program, but on a whim decided to look into some other options.
Barnes went to Google, looking for internships with the Department of Energy, as she knew she enjoyed the area.
Addyson Barnes poses outside of the Department of Energy Saturday where she is a fellow this summer in Washington D.C.
Alex Brizee | Argonaut
“And this one popped up, and I was like ‘Sure I’ll apply — it can’t hurt anything,’” Barnes said. “And then right as things were starting to get finalized for Chile, I got a call for an interview. I was like ‘What?’ I forgot I applied.”
Once she was offered the position, she took it. The internship had always been a dream.
Being located in the city for the summer — just a short metro ride or walk away — has been a huge bonus. Barnes has been able to pack her weekends full of activities, seeing many of the sites — both touristy and non — the city has had to offer her.
But, Barnes said her major takeaway from this summer will be what she has learned and continues to learn from her internship. As an engineering student, her program can be quite technical, and she felt that may have to be the path for her. But within her job, she has learned that while she may have a technical degree, her job does not have to be.
“Even more than that, seeing what opportunities there are for me as a chemical engineer or engineer in general,” Barnes said.
With 50 other fellows working within the program, most of them tend to be from the New England area and Barnes said she feels strange being one of the only interns from the West and defiantly from Idaho.
Barnes has been told by several she is one of the only people they have ever met from Idaho and wishes there was more of a desire and drive to get people from out West to come to the East. Barnes said she feels the experience is so worth it, even though she may never go back out to the East Coast.
“Get out of Idaho, that’s my advice,” Barnes said.
Though Barnes has loved her time in the East and definitely feels people should have the experience of living out there, even for the summer, the Rockies “have her heart.”
While the internship itself is 10 weeks, Barnes will spend one of those weeks presenting everything she has done throughout the summer at a forum in Pittsburgh. Throughout the summer, she has worked and continues to work on a research paper she will present to the foundation with her project at this forum.
Barnes’ project has centered around power plants and their cooling systems, focusing on one rule of the Environmental Protection Agency: rule 316(b).
The rule, although short, has been Barnes’ main focus, allowing her to understand how these cooling systems are affected over the years as they get older and more out of date.
As more power plants are asked to modernize to help benefit the environment, it has also caused power plants to shut down as it is not finically possible for them to modernize or adapt.
“We need to know what kind of impacts we are having now and how power plants are doing now so as time goes on, we are educated on it,” Barnes said.
Alex Brizee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @alex_brizee