Fellowships and Internships

Fellowships and internships with CCL are enriching learning experiences for college students and recent graduates working with our expert staff and volunteer leaders. Our fellows and interns go on to top graduate schools and careers in environmental, political, or nonprofit fields. Fellowships are paid positions and internships are volunteer. All work with CCL staff. Fellowships tend to go to students with more experience and education. Internships are usually 8 - 10 hours a week for a semester or 15 weeks.

Fellowships and internships at CCL are extremely competitive; this year we received over 200 applications for 30 positions. To increase your chances of acceptance and as an alternative, we strongly recommend that you participate in CCL’s Climate Advocacy Certificate Program the semester that you apply and also join CCL.

Applications for Summer 2025 (May 1 - August 15 [start and end dates flexible]) are now OPEN! The deadline to apply is February 15th. All positions are remote unless otherwise stated in the position description.

outreach and Engagement

Campus Organizing Interns (2 - 3 semesters)
Students selected to participate in this program will join CCL’s Emerging Campus Leaders training sequence and design and implement a climate campaign. Climate campaigns can be tailored to the interests of the intern. Potential projects include organizing a group to attend CCL’s lobby day, starting a CCL group at their school, getting the college president’s endorsement, collecting testimonials and participating in one of our ongoing campaigns like the CFD movement. Academic credit is possible in consultation with the intern’s academic advisor.

Chapter Development Intern (Remote)
The intern will assist with the weekly national Informational Session on Wednesday evenings, write featured chapter blurbs for CCL’s Weekly Bulletin, and create and implement a personal passion project of their choosing. Past projects have encompassed a wide range of activities including hosting a film screening, tabling on campus, giving presentations, and creating and delivering a diversity, equity, and inclusion workshop for volunteers.

College Outreach Intern (Remote)
The mission of Citizens’ Climate Higher Education is to empower students, educators, and their allies to build political will for climate solutions. We assist volunteers with outreach, endorsements, creating campus chapters and more. As the College Outreach Intern, you will support these efforts throughout the semester by deepening our existing relationships with higher ed faculty/staff and helping us reach new institutions, with an eye for minority serving institutions, to better showcase the work college climate advocates are doing.

Education and Engagement Intern (Remote)
This intern will support CCL’s volunteer training and education programs. The intern will generate content for CCL Community, CCL’s volunteer learning portal, and handle elements of its management. This includes researching, pitching training ideas, writing regular outlines and Google slide designs for webinars, and learning CCL’s advocacy methodologies.

Resilience and Education Intern (Remote)
This intern will direct efforts to help volunteers build personal resilience is a relatively new endeavor within CCL. The intern will play an important role in supporting and shaping this work including learning about resilience efforts in CCL, elevating the profile of the Resilience Hub within CCL, and engaging with volunteers interested in building their personal resilience.

Communications and marketing

Communications Intern (Remote)
This position will primarily support CCL's State & Local Media Coordinator, a member of the organization's national communications staff. This intern will be responsible for reviewing volunteer logs of local media work for completeness and CCL-appropriate content and tone, helping to prepare and run media training calls on Zoom, and other tasks assigned. Additional communications tasks may be available depending on the intern's skill set and interest, such as writing and uploading blog posts, authoring and pitching opinion content to media outlets, or drafting social media copy.

Specialized skills

Mountain West Regional Intern (Remote)
This dynamic position offers the opportunity to support impactful environmental advocacy work. In this role, you will assist with peer outreach across the Mountain West region and help prepare for regional events, including creating resources for meetings and promotional materials. The intern will also help run sections of the meetings and track the impact of volunteers across the region by analyzing actions taken by participants.

Climate Advocacy Fellows (Remote)
Fellows work with CCL’s Student Engagement Manager and Regional Directors 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 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. Different regions will have different position expectations; please review the position description for your region at the link above!

Applications for Summer 2025 (May 1 - August 15 [start and end dates flexible]) are now closed. We will accept applications through February 15th.

Please join CCL and volunteer with your local chapter if you’re ready to get a taste for what we do. Other ways to work with CCL include joining the Campus Leaders Program or Climate Advocacy Certificate Program.

For questions or support about internships, please contact ccl.highered@citizensclimatelobby.org.