Introducing Brooke McKelvey - Marketing and Communications Intern
Hello! My name is Brooke McKelvey and I am the Marketing and Communications Intern for Clean Energy Economy Minnesota. As a student in my senior year of college, I am excited to explore the field of clean energy through my academic background in media and communications.
Introduction to clean energy
I was fortunate enough to spend six months abroad during 2020 in Copenhagen, Denmark. While there, I studied Danish renewable energy systems and their national sustainability measures. My most memorable excursion from those six months was when we visited a completely self-sufficient island: Samsø. We met with a team of energy advocates who explained how the island’s green transition began with farmers, then we drove a few miles down the road to meet a present-day farmer. This farmer took us to the top of his wind turbine as he explained how it allows him to power his farm and sell the excess energy back to the community’s grid.
Experiencing the results of the policies set in motion by Danish citizens and government officials alike showed me the potential of numerous renewable energy sources and acted as my first introduction to the field of clean energy. After meeting with some of the local organizations behind the clean energy revolution in Copenhagen, I began researching the presence of clean energy in the United States. I am excited to begin working here, in Minnesota, on some of the same policy matters that I saw at a global scale back in Denmark.
Experience and Expectations
My most recent work experience in the nonprofit sector has been as a video editor for a small organization that works with disabled individuals to train their own service dogs. I still volunteer with them on certain projects, typically turning informational presentations and documents into videos that can be accessed by a range of viewers. This position has pushed me to develop my editing style as well as strengthen my voice as a liaison between an organization and the public.
Though my academic interests lie within the field of digital media, I have a specific focus in giving a voice to underrepresented topics. This focus evolved out of my passion for the outdoors, eventually leading me to a desire to use the technology behind digital media to help bring local stories to the surface. I see the clean energy industry as an area where policies and technologies are constantly developing and evolving, a combination that allows individuals and organizations to take their own, individual approaches, and it is these stories that I am excited to tell through this internship with Clean Energy Economy Minnesota.
As an intern, I will continue to use videos to tell stories, but I will also be exploring other mediums to discover and share these stories. Through Clean Energy Economy Minnesota’s social media platforms and newsletters, I will be highlighting current work being done by member businesses, policy makers and local organizations. Through this process, I will be interacting and working with other organizations and businesses to not only better understand their specific projects, but to better understand the clean energy industry as a whole.
A bit about me
In June, I will graduate with a B.A. in Cinema and Media Studies from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, with minors in European Studies and Digital Arts and Humanities.
I was born in California, but soon moved to Oregon where I have spent my entire life up until college. I will participate in nearly every outdoor activity (as long as it gives me an excuse to bring along a peanut butter and jelly sandwich), but I prefer kayaking, skiing, and hiking. I feel most at home hiking and skiing in the Cascades, while finding hidden lakes to kayak in the Willamette Valley, but I also love taking a weekend day to explore new hikes in various forests around Minnesota. At Carleton, I am a captain of our softball team, but you can also find me playing ultimate frisbee or playing my trumpet.