UVA’s Environmental Institute has awarded 23 ten-week paid summer internships for UVA students to work alongside practitioners. This year, through valuable partnerships with the University Career Center, the Darden School of Business, and the Jefferson Trust, UVA’s Environmental Institute increased the capacity of this popular internship program.
There are 15 traditional-style internships available to UVA students this summer. Placement organizations included ClimateWorks, the Department of Energy, The Nature Conservancy, and the Virginia Department of Transportation. Twelve different organizations agreed to host internships sure to provide a valuable and unique experience to students.
New this summer, the Institute is partnering with the Darden School of Business and Jefferson Trust to create six brand new “Decarbonization Internships.” Building on ideas generated during the 2022 Jefferson Innovation Summit, selected UVA students will spend time this summer working with organizations on strategies and projects to find new ways to reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from the organization’s footprint or from society more broadly through the adoption of the organization’s product or service.
Finally, UVA’s Environmental Institute is offering another new unique opportunity for summer internships through the creation of the “Decarbonization Corps,” a program supported by a local donor. Projects in the Decarbonization Corps focus on the innovation and entrepreneurship needed to drive systemic change, and undergraduate student interns will spend ten weeks this summer partnering with UVA faculty members and external partners to work on specific translational research projects.
“We are excited about the new and expanded opportunities for students to get real-world experience in how research is connected to action in finding solutions to climate challenges,” said Karen McGlathery, Director of the Environmental Institute. “We have had tremendous interest among students, with university partners, and with community organizations in Virginia and beyond to create a wide range of meaningful experiences for students this summer.”
The University Career Center received over 400 applications for internship positions. Students from a variety of disciplines, including majors in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, the School of Commerce and the School of Architecture applied. The results of these summer internships can have broad impacts and opportunities which outlast the ten-week internship, as well.
