Intern Profile: Hannah Fleming

Hannah Flemming.

Hannah Fleming is an intern on the Sustainable Transportation Vermont (STVT) communications team, where she co-manages the Instagram account, @SustainableVT, among other tasks. She is a junior at the University of Vermont, studying environmental studies in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources with minors in political science and business administration. She is passionate about environmental change and sustainability policy.

Hannah’s day-to-day involves “staying active and engaged on the STVT Instagram.” This often consists of creating infographics to spread the word about sustainable transportation issues and initiatives in Vermont. She also recently led a walk-audit to help community members further understand the state of transportation infrastructure and mechanisms in Burlington.

Hannah’s favorite thing about her work is “being surrounded by changemakers who are passionate about sustainable transportation and other environmental efforts.” This work makes her feel hopeful about the future. She also finds it exciting to network with the interesting people in the field. Hannah has loved her initial experience with STVT and hopes to pursue a career in sustainable policy and advocacy after she graduates.

Hannah has been an STVT intern for the entire academic year of 2021-2022. Her role and experiences have changed a lot over the last two semesters and now feels confident and comfortable in her leadership role. She is “able to make more traction on pressing issues” with this experience under her belt.

Hannah was drawn to the energy and transportation Communities of Practice internship because of a movie called “MOTHERLOAD.” This movie is about the global movement to replace cars with bikes and was shared with her at an Earth Day summit her freshman year at UVM. She saw this internship as a strong learning opportunity because of the balance between independence and mentoring in the way the internship is set up. Lastly, Hannah saw room for her own ideas to come to fruition through the flexibility STVT granted her.

The most important skill she has learned is “how to break the big picture down into smaller pieces”. This aided her with personal accountability, time management, and goal achievement. She has also become more confident in her social media design ability in leadership roles. Additionally, she has learned from her failures as well. While planning to make apparel and stickers to represent the organization, she learned, “key aspects of a design process, such as collaboration on design iterations and the procurement process.” This is something she still hopes to achieve in the future.

Hannah plans to continue to write articles for the STVT blog this summer and next year. She hopes to bring new and exciting aspects of sustainable transportation to light with her exposure to global perspectives through her study abroad in London and Costa Rica. Her advice to future interns is to “start strong and start early! Stay engaged by attending weekly meetings and classes, and work together to tackle big ideas.” She stressed that “we go further together than alone.”