Kicking off Summer with over 50 Climate Action Interns!

Orientation Day

How many interns can a small nonprofit with no full-time staff work with over the summer? 1? 2? How about 50 or more?! As part of our mission to build the next generation of climate and environmental leaders, every spring we announce our internship program and this year received 43 applicants. Thanks to generous donors, corporate sponsorship, and a grant from DuPage County, we hired 13 part-time high school and college students and yesterday was their first day! Excitingly this year, we also have 5 interns living in the Solomon Islands, a country at the frontlines of climate change. We'll be posting more about the Solomons project and what else our interns are up to in the coming days and weeks. Stay tuned!

Because we don't want to leave anyone behind who wants to contribute to climate solutions, once hiring decisions are made, we invite any high school or college student who is local and interested to join us as an unpaid intern, and this year we've had 35 sign up so far. This means we will have over 50 students involved in our internship program this summer!

Making video for Solomon Island Students

So how do we make it work?

• Giving students a choice in which team(s) they want to join. This keeps them interested and motivated.

• Giving students opportunities to lead, so it's not all down to the adult program managers to manage.

• Allowing the unpaid interns to do much of their work remotely (they don't all fit in the office!).