Youth from all over are working to create a clean energy economy and a just and sustainable society. We are engaging our peers and building climate solutions as we speak. Youth are transforming that vision and power into action that will give us the tools to generate concrete and sweeping changes in our communities worldwide! Check out the opportunities below for incredible trainings and action camps, organizing projects and awesome climate-related events.
For information about Summer Internships, Jobs and Fellowships, please also check out the Energy Action Coalition Jobs Board.
Upcoming Events
Mountain Justice Summer
May 16-22, Camp Blanton, Southeast Kentucky
Mountain Justice Summer is both a call to action and a request for help from the people of the Appalachian mountains. We seek to save our mountains, streams and forests from greedy coal companies. 300-500 people are expected to attend this year’s camp – we have delicious and healthy food and a week of activities focused on fighting mountaintop removal mining with well-known speakers and coalfield residents such as Larry Gibson, Teri Blanton and Judy Bonds. We will offer workshops and skill trainings led by experienced activists, tours of mountaintop removal mines, live music, dancing, tree-climbing, bonfires and fun!
Mountain Aid Concert
June 19-20, Shakori Hills Farm, Pittsboro, NC
The Mountain Aid Concert benefits Pennies of Promise, a grassroots campaign to construct a new building for Marsh Fork Elementary School in West Virginia. Marsh Fork Elementary sits in the shadow of a Mountain Top Removal coal mine, just 225 feet from the coal silo and 400 yards downstream from a leaking dam holding back nearly three billion gallons of toxic sludge. Performers include Grammy-winning singer and songwriter and West Virginia native Kathy Mattea, Ben Sollee, named one of NPR’s “Top Ten Unknown Artists” of the year for 2007; American music icon Donna the Buffalo; and roots rockers the Sim Redmond Band. Advance tickets for Mountain Aid are on sale now for $22.50 ($30 at the gate). On-site camping, food and craft vendors will be available. For more details, visit www.mtnaid.com.
Campus Progress National Conference
July 8th, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington D.C.
Join Campus Progress and more than 1,000 young people in Washington, D.C., for the fourth annual Campus Progress National Conference. Attendees will hear from prominent politicians, activists and musicians. Come to Washington, D.C., and join young people from all across the nation to collaborate on the issues that drive us. Contact Rosanna Herrera – Campus Progress Events Manager – rherrera@americanprogress.org
Headwaters: Student Environmental Action Coalition’s Summer Organizer Training Camp
July 26 – August 03 in High Falls, NY at the Epworth Retreat Center
This summer, come join the radically awesome Student Environmental Action Coalition for a week of fun and learning in upstate New York. Headwaters is the summer training camp of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC). At Headwaters, you will learn how to organize your campus or community for environmental justice, grow this movement, and deepen your understanding of anti-oppression as part of a community of individuals working for sustainability and justice.
Contact: andrew@seac.org
Regional and International Climate Convergences
This summer, join people from throughout your region of the US or the world beyond for an engaging week of workshops, strategizing, and direct action! The convergence is a place to strengthen our movement, network with new allies, and take action against dirty energy while working to build a sustainable world. The convergences often culminate in a collective action to confront the climate crisis.
SSC Summer Youth Environmental Leadership Training Programs
Learn to lead–improve your leadership and grassroots organizing skills by attending one of the Sierra Student Coalition’s week-long training programs. These programs are led by the nation’s top youth climate organizers. Be a FORCE for CHANGE!
Dates & Locations: Vary by program, SSC will run 9 programs in 2009. Programs open to high school and college-aged youth.
Contact: trainings@ssc.org or 202.548.4592
Southern Energy Network Summer Training/Retreat
If you’re interested in helping plan or be involved in this training connecting with other young Southern energy & climate leaders around campus and community clean energy projects, successful strategies for fighting proposed coal and nuclear plants, strategies for working with the media and increasing diversity in our work, having fun, and more!
contact: info@climateaction.net or 865-637-6055 x17
350.org Global Day of Action
October 24, 2009
350.org is a new grassroots climate campaign organizing a planetary day of action on October 24, 2009 to push for a strong global climate treaty. Why 350? According to leading scientists, 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for carbon in the atmosphere, and the target any international climate deal must aim for. Events are already being planned at iconic places around the world, from the Taj Mahal to Mt. Kilimanjaro to the Great Barrier Reef. Contact: May@350.org, 415.575.5539.
COP 15: United Nations Climate Change Conference
Dec 7-18, 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark
“Survival is not negotiable.” This was the message International Youth sent to world leaders on the final day of UN Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland this fall. Following a speech by Al Gore, over 200 international youth gathered with signs and banners to spread the message of “Project Survival.” These conferences are our greatest opportunity to engage in and shift the international climate frame. The application will be available soon. If you have questions, contact Agents of Change Coordinator Jennie Hatch at jennie.hatch@sustainus.org. See you in Copenhagen?
Awards/Grants/Scholarships
Brower Youth Awards 2009
Deadline for applications is May 15, 2009
The annual Brower Youth Awards honor six young people for their outstanding activism and achievements in the fields of environmental and social justice advocacy. Each winner is awarded $3000 and brought to San Francisco for the award week and a backcountry camping trip. The Brower Youth Awards not only promote the accomplishments of these young leaders but also invest in their continued success by providing ongoing access to resources, mentors, and opportunities to develop their leadership skills.
Seed funding of up to $1,000 to launch new green projects/campaigns
Earth Island Institute & Youth Venture have partnered to support teams of students & youth, ages 12-20, in launching new green “Ventures.” Get up to $1,000 in seed funding, technical support, feedback on your project, and an opportunity to join 200+ social and environmental entrepreneurs at the June 2009 conference.
Paid Fellowships/Internships
Stop Global Warming Internships! The Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs)
Student PIRG interns will earn course credit during the school year by working on a campaign to pass a national bill to cut global warming pollution right on your campus! The purpose of this internship is to provide the opportunity to take education out of the classroom, to do hands-on work, learn important skills, and make a direct impact in the battle to cut global warming pollution (positions are unpaid). For on-campus internships, PIRG chapters work closely with university faculty to offer course credit internships that combine classroom learning with hands on experience. Primary types of internships are: Organizing Interhip; Grassroots Internship; Media Internship; and Research Internship.
Campus Progress Advocacy, Events, Journalism Internships
Summer Term, Washington D.C.
Besides getting substantive work experience, Campus Progress interns get a stipend, access to special events like film screenings and conferences, and the opportunity to use words like “substantive” on a daily basis. Past interns have interviewed and/or attended events with Ben Stein, Noam Chomsky, Ryan Gosling, Senator Barack Obama, Talib Kweli, Senator Hillary Clinton, Ralph Nader, Samantha Power, Senator Tom Daschle, and our very own John Podesta.
350.org Global Organizing Internships
This summer, we hope to assemble an unprecedented team of young people from around the world to help launch the 350 movement (see above). We are looking to hire multi-lingual, internet savvy, and dedicated students from every continent. Paid and unpaid internships available in our Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, CA offices. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, please contact us right away at jobs@350.org.
Summer Research Fellows – Sustainable Endowments Institute
The Sustainable Endowments Institute is seeking highly motivated and reliable individuals for full-time summer research fellowships. Research Fellows will collaborate on surveying and analyzing sustainability initiatives at hundreds of prominent colleges and universities in the United States and Canada to help produce the College Sustainability Report Card 2010. The fellowship positions will last approximately 12 weeks, starting in June 2009.
Climate Fellowships Program – Clean Air-Cool Planet
Clean Air–Cool Planet has successfully worked with communities, campuses, and corporations to achieve millions of tons of greenhouse gas reductions. CA-CP has created its Climate Fellowship, a competitive, prestigious program designed for graduate and undergraduate students in fields such as environmental policy, economics, statistics, engineering, physical and biological sciences. Projects are challenging and in-depth, and may include creating or updating greenhouse gas inventories; conducting feasibility studies or implementing operational and process changes to reduce GHG emissions; creating and updating web-based tools and resources, or others identified by partner organizations.
Clean Energy Internships
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) is accepting applications for clean energy internships in our Washington, DC and Richmond, VA offices. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the first grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Our mission is to educate and mobilize citizens of this region in a way that fosters a rapid societal switch to clean energy and energy-efficient products, thus joining similar efforts worldwide to slow and perhaps halt the dangerous trend of global warming.
Other Opportunities/Programs
Fired Up Media
(all year, Washington DC & global): Fired Up Media is a new media network – by and for youth – that is nimble, global, with full-spectrum capacity to cover the most important story of our time, the impact of global warming and the construction of a clean energy economy powerful enough to build a more just world. Through the training of a global network of youth climate activists and writers in powerful new organizing and communications tools, Fired Up Media will empower the global youth climate movement to face up to the challenge of our and all future generations. This summer, Fired Up Media is looking to work with young people to launch the global correspondents network, Climate Dispatch (a regular news wire that will be syndicated to campus and local news sources), documentaries in partnership with Link TV, and Fired Up Africa (project to get technology and training to young activists in Africa). Contact: richardb.graves[at]gmail.com
Spend a Semester with the Greenpeace Organizing Term
If you’re passionate about solving our most pressing environmental challenges and you’re currently a student between the ages of 18-24, then we have the perfect opportunity for you. The Greenpeace Organizing Term is a semester long program packed with trainings on grassroots organizing, campaigning and media skills. Oh yeah, did we mention that students also get a chance to travel and work on real Greenpeace campaigns in the field? Contact us at got@wdc.greenpeace The Greenpeace Organizing Term takes place in Washington D.C. and San Francisco every Fall, Spring, and Summer, so check out our website and apply now!
Join the Greenpeace Student Network as a Campus Coordinator
The Greenpeace Student Network is an alliance of passionate leaders fighting environmental crimes with grassroots power. Armed with top organizing tools, expert guidance, and an innovative student training system, the Network gives you the chance to be a real force in a global movement for change – and Campus Coordinators are the leaders of our network. As a campus coordinator you will join others from across the US and Canada who passionate about making change: from kicking Kimberly Clark off their campus to getting their Representative to sign onto the strongest Global Warming legislation. Contact students@sfo.greenpeace.org
Apply for the SEAC National Council
The Student Environmental Action Coalition is seeking motivated organizers and leaders to apply for the National Council. The National Council is SEAC’s 100% student and youth-run decision-making and leadership body, determining SEAC’s national campaigns, events, and priorities. Learn from and organize with other youth and students across the United States and help build SEAC from the grassroots up! SEAC values digging up the roots of systemic oppression in our society, and forming a just and sustainable future in its place. Women, working class, LGBT, and persons of color are encouraged to apply.
Contact – holly@seac.org or andrew@seac.org
Apply to be a Regional Coordinator
Rolling Applications
Do you want to build a powerful environmental justice network of student and youth organizers to find solutions to the environmental and social justice problems in your region? SEAC’s regional coordinator program is a leadership development program designed to give you the tools with which to build such a network as part of the larger environmental justice movement. Whether you are fighting against big coal, nukes, oil, or for indigenous land rights, SEAC will support you with the resources you need to empower yourself and your fellow youth and create the change you need in your community.
Contact alayne@seac.org
American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC)
ACUPCC is a high-visibility effort to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate. More than 600 campus presidents have signed on committing their campuses to initiate the development of a comprehensive plan to pursue climate neutrality. Get your president to sign on (if they haven’t already) and then help your president meet the commitment!
Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS)
STARS is a voluntary, self-reporting framework for gauging relative progress toward sustainability for colleges and universities. It offers a comprehensive and transparent mechanism for students to evaluate their institution’s sustainability performance and track improvements over time. Make your school among the first to participate when the STARS is officially launched in fall 2009! In the meantime, you can help shape and improve the system by providing feedback on the current draft.
Campus Carbon Calculator
The Campus Carbon Calculator allows anyone with access to some campus data to create well-reasoned, professional reports and proposals. The Calculator and accompanying support materials walk students or staff through researching a greenhouse gas inventory, projecting a business as usual scenario, and then identifying the most cost-effective emissions reduction projects. Each step is accompanied with custom graphs, and it’s all available for free download.
‘Be a Climate Hero’ Campaign
The Student Public Interest Research Groups (Student PIRGs)
January-June
This spring, we will ask our congressmembers to be ‘climate heroes’ and support strong national action to cut global warming pollution. We’ll turn campuses across the country into Hollywood, organize huge photo shoots, get thousands of students to take a picture with a written message about solving global warming and then email the photos to our local reps; we’ll hold ‘Take a Shot at Global Warming’ events with ‘mini-mini-golf courses’ on the campus quad that feature cardboard fossil fuel obstacles and ask players to sign a ‘Be a Climate Hero’ petition to local congressmembers. For more info and how to run the campaign on your campus, email Leigh-Anne Cole at lcole@studentpirgs.org.
Take Action on Your Campus to Stop Deforestation
REDD, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, is the international policy that addresses deforestation and is a key issue in international climate negotiations. SustainUS and the National Wildlife Federation are seeking interested student leaders to be campus REDD campaign organizers. Please contact SustainUS Climate Program Coordinator Kendra Kallevig at kendra.kallevig@sustainus.org if you are interested in this campaign.
To submit additional events/programs this summer to this list, please email with the name, dates, location, description, and website/contact info to Juliana at juliana@ssc.org.
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This is so helpful! Thanks so much!
The date and location for the West Coast Convergence for Climate Action is wrong above – could you fix it?
It’s actually July 28 – Aug. 4 Near Eugene, Oregon
The e-mail address editor@itsgettinghotinhere.org doesn’t work. I know that this reply section is for summer oppurtunities but I don’t know where else to say this. How can I contact the web editor?
Conference: Young People as Powerful Citizens
I’m trying to get the message out about an event that anyone interested in youth civic engagement should attend or tune into. It’s called “Young People as Powerful Citizens: Are Politicians, Policymakers, and Funders Keeping Pace?” and I really think your site’s focus on the environment would bring an important perspective to this conference.
The debate will feature panelists aged 16 to 24, foundation leaders, and senior congressional staffers. The audience will be encouraged to discuss their views on the event’s main question: In what ways have foundations and public agencies encouraged or inhibited young people from pursuing youth-driven community change, especially with issues involving race, class, and power?
Young People as Powerful Citizens is taking place on November 12, 2008 at AED in Washington, D.C., from 8:30am to noon. Registration is required, but it’s easy and free at http://knowledge.aed-design.org/km/index.htm
If you’re unable to attend, listen to it live at Youth Radio DC, http://www.immediatereaction.org. And join the discussion about what youth need to succeed at http://www.aed.org/Topics/Youth.
Feel free to contact me with any questions. I hope to see you on November 12!
Thanks,
Jessica
jpouchet@aed.org
I didn’t notice any posting for MJSB on your blog. If I’m missing such a thing,
it may not be easily accessible to other bloggers, and if it’s not there I’d
love to find some way to get a blurb up.
thanks
Adam Hofbauer
Wild Foundation invites serious young climate change activists to attend WILD9. THe 9th World WIlderness Congress will give you reach to 1500 of the world’s most effective policy makers, business leaders, artists, musicians, NGO’s, scientists. We welcome your passion, voice, and call for urgent action. Please contact Emily at WILD.org if you want to advance your activism.
Hi,
Its good to know that people are becoming aware of the need to have a greener environment. The upcoming events and oppurtunities does help a lot.
I work for a NGO and we promote electric bikes and scooters for this cause.
Nice post, I’ll come back to read more.
Hope Smarty
Apply for a summer internship with SustainUS!
SustainUS, The U.S. Youth Network for Sustainable Development, involves youth in international negotiations surrounding sustainable development. This fall, we will be sending our 5th delegation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark.
We are seeking a summer intern to assist with work to prepare for the Copenhagen talks. The most important climate negotiations to date, world leaders will be finalizing a post-Kyoto global climate treaty, and SustainUS is working to ensure the voice of youth is heard! SustainUS is seeking applicants with an interest in and passion for climate policy, and who have activism or organizing skills.
Major Responsibilities:
-Assist the SustainUS Climate Program Coordinator and other SustainUS leadership with UN delegation planning
-Collaborate with other domestic and international youth climate organizations on grassroots action and planning
-Provide general logistical and administrative support
-Database maintenance and Internet-based communication
Qualifications:
-Education or experience in climate advocacy and/or policy
-Campaign/organizing skills
-Web or database experience preferred
-Must be able to commit to a work period of at least 10 weeks (start and end dates are flexible)
-Ability to work from Washington, D.C. highly preferred
This position is 40 hours per week and is currently unpaid. We will provide a public transit stipend and potentially a living stipend.
To apply: To apply, please send a resume and cover letter to climateintern@sustainus.org. All applications received through April 5, 2009 will be considered. Be sure to indicate the dates you will be available for the internship. We will make our selection by Sunday, April 12.
ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES:
Celebrate Earth Day at the National Aquarium (Baltimore)
Enjoy, Respect and Protect
Saturday, April 18, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Earth Day is April 22. Join the Aquarium in a party for Our Ocean Planet, honoring the new dolphin show and celebrating Earth’s watery world. Explore what you can do to enjoy, protect and respect our blue planet- starting with your own backyard. Special activities for children from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. FREE! with Aquarium admission.
It would be brilliant if you could create an RSS feed of your events and opportunities so we could easily see when it’s updated! Would this be possible?
Thanks for a great site!
He would be inclined to call de Vries’s mutation theory, figuratively, the quantum theory of biology. ,