Business student’s summer internship is an opportunity to practice sustainability

George Mason University rising junior Vidhi Pathak spent a year searching for the perfect summer internship, before landing her current position as asset management intern for Summit Ridge Energy (SRE).

“I have concentrations in both finance and management information systems and wanted to make sure that I had an understanding of what both industries look like before graduating,” said the Costello College of Business student, who investigated to more than 200 internships in her search.

Pathak’s main project this summer is to create a comprehensive power business intelligence dashboard for SRE.

SRE operates solar assets for people who live in apartments or rented space, and don’t have the means or opportunity to install solar panels on their homes. Community solar or shared solar allows more people to go solar in an efficient and renewable way by subscribing to the shared solar array for credits that lower their energy bills.

SRE has around 10 teams ranging from land development and geographic information systems to project finance and engineering, Pathak said. “Managing the company’s solar assets sits right at the end of the cycle, moving cash flow around and seeing that both the customer and our joint venture partners are paid out,” she said.

“I'm really excited about this assignment because not only does it directly correspond to what I'm learning at George Mason, but this is something that SRE’s asset management team and the C-suite executives at Summit Ridge are going to be using on a regular basis going forward,” said Pathak, who is an Honors College student.

The internship combines her business skills with her passion for sustainability, which is also one of the university’s main research areas and the focus of its Institute for a Sustainable Earth.

“I'm always trying to approach things from a sustainable point of view,” said Pathak. “I know there's a lot of preconceived notions about business majors only caring about money, and I want to prove that I care about the bigger world around me.”

When Pathak first came to George Mason, she joined Costello’s Impact Fellows Program where she was able to approach essential business courses with a sustainability mindset.

“I’ve experienced a lot of cool extracurriculars through this program. We went to visit a bee farm and took a trip to Asheville, North Carolina, to visit sustainable businesses; everything from nonprofits that work on water waste management in the region to big food banks,” said Pathak.

She also served as a member of the Mason Sustainability Council and as the undersecretary of  University Sustainability with George Mason’s Student Government during her sophomore year.

“That role involved a lot of correspondence with fellow students, faculty and staff, and people in the local community, and bringing them together for events like the Patriot Packout or Earth Month initiatives,” said Pathak.

Pathak is also featured in University Sustainability videos teaching students the best practices for recycling, saving water, minimizing our carbon footprint, and more.

“I love the Earth and hope to integrate this passion into whatever job I end up doing post-grad,” said Pathak.