The Harvard Climate Internship Program (HCIP) welcomes 17 graduate students as its inaugural cohort of summer intern fellows. The HCIP is a university-wide program supporting graduate students who work in a climate policy-oriented summer internship.
The students represent the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School. In addition to several Boston area posts, their internships are located in New York; Washington, DC; Houston; Los Angeles; Madrid, Spain; Cape Town, South Africa; Geneva, Switzerland; and Indonesia. Their host organizations include local, state, and national government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, private sector firms, and non-governmental organizations.
The program aims to complement the classroom climate learning experience, build the climate community, showcase future climate leaders, and promote broad representation in the program. Recipients may receive a financial award as well as mentoring and an opportunity to participate in virtual programming with policy practitioners and Harvard faculty. The HCIP is sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability and the Harvard Kennedy School. Students are responsible for securing their own climate-related internship. The inaugural cohort of fellows are:
Gray Bender (HKS MPP) is working with the UN Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE) Sustainable Energy Division, where he will support efforts to address regulator and policy barriers to improve energy efficiency, renewables deployment, and energy security across the region ahead of a meeting of member state energy representatives in the fall.
Christopher (Kipper) Berven (HLS JD) is working at the New York Attorney General's Environmental Protection Bureau with attorneys and scientists to advance and enforce greenhouse gas emissions reductions, water pollution standards, and hazardous waste cleanup.
Chris D’Agostino (HKS MPP) is working with the International Division of the U.S. Department of Energy, assisting cross-governmental efforts to set the globe on a path to full decarbonization mid-century.
Windy Dewi (HKS MPP) holds an internship with the World Bank working on the decarbonization of coal and oil dependent energy systems in various geographies including Indonesia, Timor Leste, and the European Union. Windy will focus on both the short-term energy security concerns and the long-term sustainable energy transition.
Peter Gips (HBS MBA) is working on a range of strategic and operational efforts for Electric Hydrogen. These projects include policy engagement through assessing available policy incentive opportunities, developing key relationships, and navigating regulatory permitting frameworks.
Adele Houghton (HCSPH PhD) is piloting a novel approach to prioritizing building design and operations decisions so that they maximize neighborhood-scale co-benefits to climate change, health, and equity. With funding from the American Institute of Architects Upjohn Research Initiative, the long-term goal of the project is to propose a framework for local government to revise green building requirements so that they are responsive to environmental exposures and population health needs, which shift from one neighborhood to the next.
Raveena John (HGSD MUP) holds the Resilience Fellowship at Climate Ready Boston giving her an opportunity to work with the city on stormwater management projects and related strategies to incorporate stormwater considerations into the city's robust climate strategies. This will include a combination of municipal policy recommendations, development standards, and retroactive mitigation techniques, along with community engagement and education.
Renata Koch Alvarenga (HKS MPP) is a Climate and Sustainable Development intern at the Office of Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth at the United Nations Headquarters. Renata will support the UN’s Climate Change agenda through mobilizing and engaging young people for climate action.
Liza Maharjan (HKS MPA/ID) is interning at Clarity AI which uses estimation models to address Scope 3 data quality by replacing or enhancing existing data points. Her summer internship project aims to improve the accuracy and granularity of these models by looking for and integrating new data sets, which will allow for better decision-making and contribute to a better and faster reallocation of carbon-intensive capital to the low-carbon economy.
Jake Mills (HKS MPP) is a Future of Work Summer Intern at the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency where he will conduct research on labor market projections and support program development and implementation in climate-related sectors, with a focus on training and employment options for displaced oil and gas workers and responding to technological innovations and market forces in the agriculture sector.
Abdurrehman Naveed (HKS MPP) is working at eMBeD, the Behavioral Science unit at the World Bank, to leverage behavioral insights in the development of programmatic interventions for the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth and improved livelihoods in Morocco.
Erin O’Dwyer (GSAS/HCSPH PhD) is working alongside the EAT Lancet Commission, where she assists in the revision of planetary health dietary guidance and development of global policy guidance around carbon sequestration, regenerative agriculture, and soil health.
Alex Prather (HKS MPA2) is researching, writing, and publishing about the intersection of carbon markets with nature-based and technology-based carbon removal solutions for the FootPrint Coalition. Alex will spend time in the field on carbon credit projects in Kenya, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, New York and San Francisco to explore system-level barriers and opportunities for scaling carbon removal efforts.
Jack Raeder (HKS MPP) is interning with the United Nations Environment Program's Finance Initiative. He will be working with UNEP FI's climate change team, pushing the global financial sector to move faster on critical climate issues.
Charlotte Ross (HKS MPP ’23) is conducting research and financial analysis of new market and policy opportunities for renewable and energy storage assets across the U.S. while working at the clean energy startup SYSO Technologies. A main focus will be on building recommendations for how clean energy assets should participate in wholesale energy markets and summarizing key policy findings for senior leadership.
Muriel van de Bilt (HKS MPA/ID) holds a position with the Pegasys Urban Resilience team working with cities across Africa and the Middle East on how to best consider climate change when thinking about their long-term planning and growth.
Andrew Wei (HKS MPP) will be supporting the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he will work with the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer's team to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. government operations.
The HCIP summer intern fellows were selected through a competitive process evaluated by a committee including Joe Aldy (HKS), Caroline Buckee (HCSPH), Carrie Jenks (HLS), David Keith (HKS), Nora O’Neil (HKS), and Rob Stavins (HKS). For more information about the program, refer to the HCIP website.