Hello ENGR 312 Classmates! My name is Dominique Wells and I’m a 25 year old Washington, DC native, currently living and working in the city. I grew up in different parts of Prince Georges County, MD and NE, Washington, DC. I enjoy traveling quite a bit and love experiencing new places however I’ve never taken residence outside of the area, probably because I like DC best.

Currently, I’m federally employed at the US Department of Energy (DOE) in the Office of Oil and Natural Gas as a Program Management Analyst; I’ve been with this office 5 years. A lot of my responsibilities revolve around annual reports to congress and federal advisory committee actions, which were initially very interesting however now they’re much not fun. I’ve been so influenced by the work being done on other projects from my office that it encouraged me to enroll in Penn State’s Energy and Sustainability Policy (ESP) program 2-3 years ago and I haven’t looked back since. The majority of the coursework (this class included) has supported my transition toward furthering my career in more energy specific endeavors within DOE.

Tapping into my personal entrepreneurial experience, I have started a business once before however it was nothing relative to energy. During my senior year in high school and following the 2 years thereafter, I ran a clothing line that mainly consisted of t-shirts, hoodies, and other tops for men and women. The line gained some success and even made some profit but eventually I discovered it wasn’t something I wanted to pursue long term.

The type of business I could see having a significant impact on the renewable energy industry is one that made the production and installation of solar panels simpler and more affordable for the masses. Although tax deductions (in applicable states) are encouraging, the initial high price to purchase and install solar panels versus the long term benefit is still discouraging to those who don’t have thousands of dollars laying around.