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 Spring 2025 (January 6 - May 1 [start and end dates flexible]) are now OPEN! The deadline to apply is October 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 Climate GOAT Campaign or 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.

National Youth Action Team Intern (Remote)
The CCL National Youth Action Team (NYAT) supports youth under 18 to be active, empowered and engaged in climate advocacy. This intern will play a key role as NYAT offers opportunities to middle and high school students to be involved and step into leadership. The intern will support two of our sub-teams: the Membership/Inclusion Team, welcoming new youth to NYAT, and our Communications sub-team, overseeing and growing our social media presence.   

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.

Citizens’ Climate Radio Intern (Remote)
The intern will work closely with the producer of CCL’s podcast, Citizens’ Climate Radio, to complete and promote podcast episodes for our broad audience of listeners. You should expect to contribute primarily to post-production efforts, including music selection, producing transcripts, and creating promotional materials.

Specialized skills

Diversity & Inclusion Fellow (Remote)
The Inclusion Department has an opening for two Diversity & Inclusion Fellows interested in interacting with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) volunteers who are interested in engaging in climate policy on a regular basis. As the Diversity & Inclusion Fellow, you will support our National Inclusion Team to develop and test different outreach methods to reach any community across the United States. You will also help support the Inclusion Department through presentations, workshops, and social media outreach. This is a yearly commitment available with a stipend.

National Events Intern (Remote)
This intern will support the planning of CCL's national events, primarily the June Conference & Lobby Day (in-person), along with the Conservative Conference & Lobby Day (in-person) and Inclusion Conference (virtual). The intern will assist CCL staff in developing the conference programming, communicating with conference speakers, creating conference marketing, working with vendors, and coordinating other event logistics. 

Outdoor Industry & Mountain West Intern (Remote)
Join Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) as an Outdoor Industry Action Team & Mountain West Leadership Relationship Intern. This dynamic position offers the opportunity to engage in impactful environmental advocacy work, focusing on both the National Action Team for the Outdoor Industry and the Mountain West region. Being located in the Mountain West is not required. You will collaborate on student outreach, assist in promoting and organizing meetings, and contribute to building strong relationships with key stakeholders. This role is ideal for those passionate about climate solutions and interested in gaining experience in grassroots organizing and advocacy.

National Youth Action Team Electrification (Remote)
The CCL National Youth Action Team (NYAT) supports youth under 18 to be active, empowered and engaged in climate advocacy. This intern will play a key role as NYAT offers opportunities to middle and high school students to advocate for school electrification. The intern will support our Great School Electrification Challenge teams of students across the country as they draft, build support for, and pass electrification resolutions in their school districts.   

Applications for Spring 2025 (January 6 - May 1 [start and end dates flexible]) are now closed. We will accept applications through October 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.