Autodesk Summer Internship: Practical Experience and Community Service Part 2

At Autodesk Labs we're not just about technology. We're also about community. You may recall my post on Autodesk Summer Internship: Practical Experience and Community Service where one of our interns, Prasann Agrawal, was shown volunteering for Meals of Marin. This past weekend was no exception.

That's Prasann doing some weeding.

Several Autodesk interns and others (Hey who's that guy in the back row second from the right?) participated in a volunteer effort to work with the National Park Service to spruce up Crissy Field. This is part of an intensive effort to preserve and restore important natural areas of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The restoration of Crissy Field returns the site to the sand dune community of plants and wildlife it once was as well as allows public access to the beautiful natural resource along the San Francisco Bay.

All of us worked very hard. Otis Redding lyrics aside, no one could say they were "just sitting on the dock of the Bay watching the tide roll away." In addition to the interns and myself, Talent Acquisition (new name for HR recruiting) Coordinators, Jenny Diani and Aria Yow, Software Engineer Jaideep Venkatesh, as well as University Programs Manager, Maureen Buehler, really worked up a sweat. Although you might have expected us to wear inmate orange, we all adorned red Autodesk T-shirts. By the way, we non-interns didn't just pose for pictures.

Here's one of me taken from the least flattering angle possible. Shaan Hurley will contend it is karmic payback. (I have since been informed that this picture was taken as shown to avoid "disturbing me" while I worked.) My wife Sheryl (to my left) also volunteered. That's Maureen to her left.

Alphabetically our group included: Aaron Hong, Aastha Parikh, Amit Sharma, Andrew Diec, Aria Yow, Arun Gunari, Christine Kim, Heidi Winkel, Jaideep Venkatesh, Jenny Diani, John Chan, Joseph Andresen, Manan Shah, Maureen Buehler, Pavis Chen, Prasann Agrawal, Scott Sheppard, Sheng-Pao "Nelson" Wu, Sheryl Sheppard, and Wei Li. Autodesk Labs, and Autodesk in general, are thrilled to have talented interns whose hearts are in the right place. The spirit of community is alive in the lab. If you have words of encouragement for our interns, we'd love to hear them: thelabs@autodesk.com.