Looking for a summer internship? Apply for a Breakthrough Institute Fellowship

Looking for a summer internship? How about a paid summer fellowship at one of the country’s most cutting-edge think tanks?

The Breakthrough Institute is seeking up to ten of the country’s top young thought leaders for a paid Fellowship in Summer 2009 as part of its young leaders initiative, Breakthrough Generation. Fellowships are highly competitive — in 2008, 10 percent of applicants were accepted — and involve cutting-edge writing, research, and analysis on energy/climate, national security, the economy, health care, and other issues. Previous Breakthrough Fellows have published in the Harvard Law & Policy Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, and Alternet.

In 2009, Fellows have a unique opportunity to be closely involved with the Breakthrough Institute. Over the next year, Breakthrough will work to seize today’s historic moment to establish a new era of progressive governance that prioritizes major, long-term government investments in clean energy technology innovation, as well as a new social contract. But major obstacles lie ahead, including severe economic recession and an unpredictable global landscape. To seize the moment, our leaders will need bold ideas backed by sharp thinking and clear analysis.

The Breakthrough Institute has a history of reinventing older political paradigms with big ideas. In 2002, Breakthrough co-founded the Apollo Alliance and the new Apollo project for clean energy, which President-elect Obama recently announced is his number one priority alongside stabilizing the economy. We succeed by tapping cutting-edge progressive thinking, sharp analysis, and superb communication to create and advance ideas capable of achieving the broad social and ecological transformations America and the world need.

Fellowships pay $300 per week and are awarded to individuals aged 18-25 who will be closely involved with Breakthrough’s high-level work. Activities and projects include writing short articles and op-eds, researching and writing policy white papers, and conducting interviews with the nation’s top political and policy experts. Fellows will work 40 hours per week for ten weeks during Summer 2009 from Breakthrough’s central office in Oakland, CA.

Breakthrough believes effective political movements emerge out of strong communities, and Fellows will be encouraged to join a special three-day camping retreat during the summer, as well as other social events. Selected Fellows are expected to attend a two-day introduction summit during a weekend in late April or early May, 2009, for which all travel expenses will be covered.

To apply, submit a cover letter, resume or CV, and three writing samples to fellowship@thebreakthrough.org. Writing samples should include at least one op-ed and one research paper. Personal recommendations are welcomed but not required. Applications are due by 5:00PM PST on March 15th, 2009. Please direct any questions to Teryn Norris.

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Breakthrough Generation Fellows 2008

About Teryn

Teryn Norris is a leading young energy policy analyst and strategist. Currently a public policy major at Stanford University and Director of Americans for Energy Leadership, he has developed and advanced clean energy policy at the federal and state level, and his writing has appeared in the Harvard Law & Policy Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Yale Environment 360, Huffington Post, and other publications. As a former Project Director at the Breakthrough Institute, he supported successful advocacy to achieve a $150 billion clean energy investment platform for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and co-authored the National Energy Education Act proposal, which helped create the Obama administration's RE-ENERGYSE initiative. He is co-author of several policy reports, including the widely acclaimed “Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant,” and his work has been featured by the New York Times, WhiteHouse.gov, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Financial Times, Newsweek, CNN, CNBC, BusinessWeek, Fortune Magazine, and other media outlets. He is founder of Breakthrough Generation, the young leaders initiative of the Breakthrough Institute, and he co-directed its fellowship program in 2008 and 2009 to train a group of the nation’s leading college and graduate students. Before joining the Breakthrough Institute and transferring to Stanford, Teryn worked with Environment California to advance the California Global Warming Solutions Act. He served as president of his class at Johns Hopkins, where he led a successful student campaign to achieve a university-wide climate initiative, and he served on the Johns Hopkins President's Task Force on Climate Change. Contact: Email and Twitter