Hello class, my name is Kayla Kalinoski. I am from Scranton, PA (home of “The Office”) I currently reside in State College, PA. I spent my two first years of college attending Penn State’s University Park campus, pretty undecided about my degree choice. Last fall, I found Energy and Sustainability offered through Penn State World Campus and fell in love with learning. I am particularly interested in studying solar energy. This past summer I attended Energy Path 2014 in Reading, PA. It consisted of five days worth of classes and a conference. It was a wonderful experience to be among professionals and students alike. I gained a lot of knowledge I hope I can share with others this year. I am also really looking forward to gaining insight from my peers, especially those who are already thriving within the field of renewable energies.

This past summer, I also began working on an internship at Penn State. It was an entrepreneurial endeavor involving selling smoothies from a student-designed solar powered smoothie cart. I did not get to work on the project for long due to a family emergency, but I did admire the project as a whole. The cart operated on busy streets in downtown State College and was mainly used to raise awareness about solar energy and that it is a feasible source of energy. I got to speak to many onlookers and educate them on solar energy. It was also a good day whenever our business would make a profit, sadly that didn’t occur often. If all businesses switched to renewable energies rather than relying mainly on electricity, it would be great!