What is the role of a Climate Corps Fellow?

Fellows will spend the duration of their fellowship learning about climate protection practices, developing professional skills for this field, and implementing projects that galvanize understanding through real-world experience.

• Participate in an initial orientation and ongoing training activities throughout the fellowship
• Directly implement for one or more climate change resiliency projects (assessments, education, or mitigation)
• Build awareness of climate change through outreach and publicity efforts
• Attend community events and presents information as necessary 
• Track outcomes and report on efforts to community members

Download the Program Description

Photo courtesy of Emily Sadigh

What qualifications are we looking for?

This is a full-time, 10-month fellowship program. We are looking for recent college graduates who have a baseline set of education and experience that they want to build on through this fellowship.

• College graduates with environmental policy, science or planning degrees with an emphasis on energy or climate are preferred, but other relevant experience is considered (internships, volunteer experience etc.).
• A solid foundation of math and science coursework is valuable.
• Classroom experience with energy and environmental policy.
• Community outreach and communications experience.
• This is an equal opportunity position and we prefer to place a candidate who already lives in the community being served.
• U.S. Citizenship. Unfortunately, the structure of our program does not allow for international applicants at this time. 

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How do I benefit from the program?

In exchange for their service, each Fellow receives the following benefits: 

• Living allowance stipend starts at $2,000 per month or more (before taxes).
• End of program award.
• Assistance with putting applicable student loans into forbearance if desired.
• Kaiser Silver Health Care Coverage is offered.
• Extensive professional and personal development training. 
• Climate Change Protection Professional Certificate awarded by Skyline College upon completion of training. (Does not apply to Climate Corps AmeriCorps Fellows.)

What type of professional development and training will I receive?

Our goal is to provide both an exceptional training and professional development opportunity to participating fellows, while also having an impact on the communities we serve. To fulfill this goal, we are committed to providing not only the experience of working on climate and energy programs, but also creating a high quality training for our Fellows. Our professional development concentrates on the following areas:

• Developing Fellows to be strong implementers of community climate change projects
• Developing fellows to be emerging community leaders and professionals
• Learning about and enhancing fellows skills in building community partnerships

"I worked with Congregation Rodef Sholom on designing and implementing a more uniform and efficient recycling system as well as introducing a composting system. I strongly believe that this specific project played a role in helping me get my current position. Through my involvement in the project, I believe that they got a good sense of my work ethic as well as my genuine passion for the field of waste management!"
-Izzy Parnell-Wolfe (2015-16 Fellow) 

“Stanford has been a really great opportunity! Probably the best outcome I could have asked for once Climate Corps was over. Climate Corps was the only reason I got this [Environmental Engineer] position. I was giving my final webinar presentation to the water agencies in San Mateo County and my current boss at Stanford happened to listen in and she must've really liked it because she called me to tell me about the opening they had. Long story short, it all worked out!" 
- Erica Kudyba (2013-14 Fellow)

Training is implemented through three primary activities

1. A 4-day orientation prior to the start of the fellowship that provides a baseline of skills and information for the fellowship.
2. A personal training plan that defines specific learning objectives and training opportunities to be realized through the site placement.
3. Monthly full-day developmental trainings, including a 2-day mid year retreat.

In addition, Fellows will have regular check-in meetings with their site supervisors and program staff; have access to an online portal where fellows can share information, communicate with other fellows and discuss project challenges; and complete 2 Professional Development Assessments to define and track developmental progress.

Overall, Fellows will spend at least 80% of their time on Experiential Learning Activities and no more than 20% of their time spent on specific training. The balance of this time is somewhat dependent on the training needs for your organization or projects.

Experiential Learning Activities
The primary goal of the fellowship is to "learn by doing", taking the baseline knowledge of climate protection learned in a classroom  into the workplace. This is accomplished through the following kinds of project implementation activities.

• Directly implement for one or more climate change resiliency projects (assessments, education, or mitigation)
• Build awareness of climate change through outreach and publicity efforts
• Attend community events and present information as necessary 
• Track and report outcomes as a result of the program
• Participate in the organizational culture of the site placement to learn how it operates and what kind of career options are available in that sector.

Specific Training
Specific training will focus on two strands of learning critical to climate protection professionals; Climate Protection Policies & Practices and Climate Protection Leadership.

• Climate Protection Policies & Practices will address current climate science and provide a foundational understanding of current climate protection policies specifically in California and utilize this understanding to examine the range of practices being utilized to respond to these policies.
• Climate Protection Leadership will address the core skills likely to be utilized by individuals in the climate protection field whether in a local government, nonprofit, or for-profit setting such as project management, workplace professionalism, leadership, communications, networking, and job hunting
• Climate Change Protection Professional Certificate will be awarded by Skyline College upon completion of training.