My drive to the first day of my internship in Somerville, Massachusetts took me past a lot of junkyards and auto parts shops. I was a little nervous about what to expect when I arrived, but when I drove past an explosion of green amidst the rust and metal I knew I was in the right place. Green City Growers (GCG) brings urban farming solutions to the greater Boston area. They help families, schools and businesses to install, maintain and harvest their vegetable gardens while building a connection between people and where their food comes from. Some of their projects include a rooftop garden at Whole Foods, helping a local fast food chain grow their own tomatoes in kiddie pools in a parking garage, and running employee wellness programs at a health insurance company. I joined Green City Growers as a Business Development intern, which means I work a lot with the Director of Marketing to advance GCG’s sales campaigns. I’m also going to help with the rebranding and rewriting of their website, creating a Pinterest page and I will get to do some urban farming as well!
I found out about Green City Growers like I find out about so many things: through Google. My two main priorities for an internship this summer were living in a new city with my best friend (who is interning with the NGO Partners in Health in Cambridge) and explore sustainable agriculture as a potential career path. I began looking for food related internships in the Boston area, compiled a list, and began sending out cold cover letters and resumes. I kept track of all the organizations I applied to in a spreadsheet, noting deadlines, if I had received responses or requests for an interview, as well as their main contact person. This was really helpful in tracking where I had applied and what organizations were dead-ends. Green City Growers has an established internship program, and I was thrilled when they offered me a position after a phone interview.
My first week here has been an adjustment. It is a busy time at the office, and so I have been thrown into the swing of the company without much introduction or training. I appreciate that they have a lot of trust in me and that I will have the freedom I need to complete some independent projects for the organization. The lack of discussion and guidance on the projects I will be completely has been a little frustrating however, and one of my goals for next week is to request a meeting with the executive director so we can go over my duties and responsibilities more in-depth. There’s a nice office culture here, as everyone is pretty young and the whole office does activities together, like going to a Red Sox game at Fenway next month. Plus there is an adorable office dog named Stella and an abundance of fresh produce in the fridge; the perks of working with farmers. Overall, I am going to learn a lot about marketing and running a small business while I’m here, and will hopefully provide some real value to their company.