Climate Advocacy Fellowships
Climate Advocacy Fellows are students or recent graduates with experience in campus organizing and advocacy training the younger generation of climate leaders. Fellows work with CCL’s Student Engagement Manager and Regional Coordinators to recruit and mentor campus leaders, conduct outreach to higher education, and invite students to participate in advancing CCL’s regional and national priorities. Fellows commit for one year and receive a stipend of $3,400 and support to attend CCL’s national conferences. Fellows typically devote 8-10 hours a week to CCL work. Applicants should have experience as a CCL campus leader, intern, or actively participated with a local chapter. Comparable experience at another environmental organization is also welcome. Please see our intern page to apply.
2024-2025 Climate Advocacy Fellows
Jun Gesteland
Jun (he/him) is our Great Lakes and North Wind Fellow and a freshman at the Rutgers University Honors College in New Brunswick studying chemical engineering and environmental science. He joined CCL during his gap year before entering college and became a CCL Wisconsin intern, where he led a state-wide phone banking team to mobilize people to vote in the upcoming elections. He is especially interested in climate communications and how to increase youth involvement in climate advocacy. He hopes to work toward a sustainable career that can help foster unity in our heavily divided world. In his free time, he likes playing the violin, cooking, bouldering, and hiking.
Contact: jun.gesteland@citizensclimatelobby.org
Max Arquilevich
Max is our Greater Pacific Northwest Fellow and a 2023 graduate from the University of Oregon, where he co-founded a CCL chapter. He graduated with a Bachelors in Science, majoring in Environmental Studies, with a focus on global studies. Max has spent the past year traveling and working in Iceland, Australia, Chile, and French Polynesia! He is passionate about bringing people and cultures together, and learning from traditional ecological knowledge.
Contact: max.arquilevich@citizensclimatelobby.org
Aila Yurochko
Aila is a rising senior studying Environmental Policy and Planning at Virginia Tech. Aila grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana driving her passion for climate advocacy after witnessing the impacts climate change has had on her home state.
She is also an active member in the New River Valley CCL chapter and participates in local advocacy. Her goal is to go to law school and become an environmental lawyer.
Contact: aila.yurochko@citizensclimatelobby.org
Giovanna Santo
Giovanna is our Southeast and Mountain West Fellow and is currently a sophomore at Florida International University majoring in political science. She has been a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby since she was 16, when she became leader of the Broward County Chapter and led volunteers to lobby members of Congress, publish media, and connect with the local community on climate change solutions. Her passion for climate advocacy drove her to continue her work with CCL as the co-leader of the Mobilization Managers Action Team, where she supports mobilization managers in engaging their chapters in the monthly CAP actions. Giovanna’s dedication to the climate movement extends outside CCL with her work as a National Strategy Coordinator for the Carbon Fee and Dividend Project. Her hope is to devote her career to climate change and contribute to the implementation of bipartisan and efficient climate policies.
Contact: giovanna.santo@citizensclimatelobby.org
Lily Maenza
Lily is a rising junior at the University of Vermont studying Sustainability, Ecology, and Policy, minoring in Geospatial Technologies as well as Community and International Development Applied Economics. She is passionate about environmental justice, climate policy, sustainable development, and community organizing. Lily is originally from Brooklyn, New York City, where her interest in climate began as she wanted to create a space for her peers to discuss the impacts of climate injustice in their communities and accessible advocacy by founding her high school environmental club.
Contact: lily.maenza@citizensclimatelobby.org
2023 - 2024 Climate Advocacy Fellows
Sara Eyassu
Sara is our Mountain West Fellow and is currently a sophomore at the University of Southern California majoring in environmental studies as a pre-law student. Last summer, she completed a teaching fellowship with Generation Teach where she taught environmental justice to rising sixth graders. This drive encouraged climate advocacy within higher education through membership on the Student Sustainability Committee of the Presidential Working Group on Sustainability in Education, Research, and Operations. She hopes to continue learning through collaborative efforts and equitable sustainability work.
Contact: sara.eyassu@citizensclimatelobby.org
Mabel Travis
Mabel is a junior majoring in Environmental Science and Conservation and minoring in Communications at Concordia University Texas. She is also a "Selah Scholars" Environmental Science fellowship recipient at Concordia University doing research and advocacy work pertaining to environmental stewardship, education, and climate change. Mabel is the campus leader and founder of the Concordia University Texas CCL Student Chapter and is the Third Coast Regional Fellow for CCL Higher Education. She enjoys the arts, history, botany, climate policy, psychology, interpersonal communications, social and environmental justice, and political science. After graduation, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in environmental policy.
Emily Johnson
Emily is our Appalachia Fellow and is a rising senior at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky pursuing a degree in Women's and Gender Studies. Emily grew up in rural Kentucky and is passionate about making sure that people from low income and rural backgrounds, as well as queer and young people, are prioritized in every aspect of life, including in the climate movement.
James Bradford III
James is the North Wind Climate Advocacy Fellow and is currently an undergrad student at Saint Paul College in Minnesota majoring in communications. He is also an active member of the CCL East Metro Chapter in Minnesota, the CCL Minnesota Statewide team, and the CCL Environmental Justice action team. He has passionately and intentionally strived to grow in his knowledge of the impacts of climate and environment issues, as well as engaged with others new and old to the climate movement on ways to bring more awareness and solutions, that can lower the carbon footprint in his community and nationally.