Welcome to our July installment of our Staff Spotlight feature, where we share a brief interview to introduce you to some of our amazing staff members here at GRID Bay Area! This month, we are introducing you to our SolarCorps Outreach Fellow, James Walker! James brings enthusiasm and passion to everything he works on, which is part of what made him stand out as a GRID intern before joining our staff. James’s SolarCorps year of service combines his interests in foreign languages with his passions for addressing wealth inequality and climate change.<\/p>\n
Pronouns:<\/strong> he\/him<\/p>\n How did you come to GRID?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was born and raised in Newport, Rhode Island, and graduated from Salve Regina University with a bachelor\u2019s in French and Global Studies. Throughout college I worked behind the bar at a local upscale restaurant that one could describe as a watering hole for the global sailing elite. I interned for US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in Providence, who is known for his weekly senate floor \u201cTime to Wake Up\u201d speeches on climate change and spearheading development of the Block Island Wind Farm. I wasn\u2019t quite sure immediately after college what I wanted to do with my degree, but I knew that I loved foreign languages and was passionate about crises of human development, more so wealth inequality and climate change. I then moved out west to Monterey where I picked up Spanish and graduated with a Master\u2019s in International Policy and Development from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. I then moved to Oakland and interned in GRID Bay Area\u2019s outreach department before I become an outreach fellow.<\/p>\n What GRID value most resonates with you?<\/strong><\/p>\n GRID does a lot of work with equity, inclusion, and diversity. This truly existential and self-reflective question resonates with me in not just our amazing solar training programs, but the homeowners whom we serve and install for. How can we be truly equitable, inclusive, and diverse with our services in a time where socio-economic inequality continues to grow? GRID has shown me that this means helping those who need it most unequivocally to the best of our ability. Disadvantaged communities are disproportionately affected by the issues we are fighting against, and consequently our impact is felt most in those communities.<\/p>\n