As a second-year student at Grinnell College, I worked with a coalition of students and the administration to advocate for the development and ownership of a 3 turbine wind power project to offset the college's carbon footprint. Because of these efforts, Grinnell sponsored my attendance at the annual AWEA conference to gain contacts and seek support for our project. There I met my future colleagues while in line at a Starbucks. After spending the summer as an intern in Chicago with Mainstream Renewable Power, I was invited join the team following my graduation.Starting in Chicago I gained exposure to projects at all stages of development. I managed projects in Illinois, Ohio, and California before taking on projects in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. As Mainstream withdrew from the North American market, I supported the sale of the remaining development pipeline. In 2015, I transitioned to the Mexican market where I managed the due diligence of project acquisitions and supported the opening of the Mexico City office. I led the opening of the Mainstream office in Hanoi, Vietnam and Melbourne, Australia before joining the US based team working on offshore wind. What started out as student activism became much more when I realized that developing renewable energy projects was exactly what I wanted to do with my life. Over the past 12 years I have been fortunate enough to work in numerous markets pursuing my dream of helping to realize a future built on clean energy.