Students come to Harvard Kennedy School to pursue their passions, learn about complex issues, and gain insight into public policy firsthand. Many students in our two-year programs put their classroom learning into action through internships between their first and second years.
Among them, four students took on internships bridging climate, sustainability, and social impact, and spanning contexts from East Africa to Bozeman, Montana. Their work focused on waste management, conservation, sustainable finance, and climate policy.
Read their reflections on what they learned, the challenges they faced, and how their summer experiences are shaping their vision for the future.
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Disha Datta MPA/ID 2026
Circular Impact (a subsidiary of Sanergy), Nairobi, Kenya
Tell us a bit about your background.
I’m a second-year MPA/ID student from Singapore, with a background in consulting. Prior to HKS, I worked on ESG and sustainability strategy projects across the private and public sectors.
Where did you intern this summer, and what kind of projects did you work on?
This summer, I interned at Circular Impact, a subsidiary of Sanergy, a circular sanitation business based in Nairobi, Kenya. Sanergy promotes the fundamental human right to sanitation in Kenya’s informal settlements by expanding access to hygienic sanitation facilities. Waste collected from these facilities is converted into high-margin products like electricity, fertilizer, and animal feed.
At Circular Impact, I supported the issuance and sale of carbon credits tied to Sanergy’s work in waste management and its production of biochar.
What did you learn this summer?
How critical waste management is in the fight against climate change.
When organic and sanitation waste is left untreated, it breaks down into methane, which is 80 times more harmful than CO₂. Cities like Nairobi produce over 1.5 million tonnes of untreated waste each year, releasing massive amounts of emissions and accelerating climate impacts. I also saw how powerful sanitation infrastructure can be, not just for the environment, but also in addressing key development challenges such as health, dignity, and equity.
“This internship has given me invaluable exposure into how climate finance solutions can be scaled for real impact, and the level of grit, rigor, and innovation required to run a circular business model effectively.”
What were some highlights?
Living and working in Nairobi was a definite highlight. After a year of studying international development in the classroom, it was grounding and energizing to go to Kenya and work directly on the issues I grappled with all year. Nairobi is such a dynamic and diverse city with a bustling social enterprise ecosystem. Exploring the region with MPA/ID friends and learning from their internships made the experience even more enriching and fun.
How does your summer internship fit into your academic and professional goals?
I’m passionate about working at the intersection of sustainability and finance, particularly in emerging markets. This internship gave me invaluable insight into how climate finance solutions can be scaled for real impact, and the level of grit, rigor, and innovation required to run a circular business model effectively.
In the context of today’s challenges, what role should emerging policy leaders play in shaping climate and sustainability efforts?
Emerging policy leaders have a responsibility to champion climate solutions that not only reduce emissions but also uplift the most vulnerable populations.
I believe the most effective interventions are often those that address multiple development challenges at once. For instance, Sanergy’s work ties climate action to health, dignity, and access to sanitation. We need leaders who can drive innovation, and who are excited to promote and finance climate solutions that deliver broader development impact.
Sisay Lelissa MPA/ID 2026
Senior investment analyst, Nordic Impact Funds, a Copenhagen and Uganda-based impact investment firm
Tell us a bit about your background.
I’m a second-year MPA/ID student. I’m originally from Ethiopia and have spent the past several years working on issues like social protection, migration, and financial inclusion across Sub-Saharan Africa. I’ve worked with organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the International Organization for Migration always with a focus on strengthening systems that serve vulnerable populations, especially those working in the informal economy. My passion lies in connecting public policy, finance, and technology to build more equitable and resilient economies across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Where did you intern this summer, and what kind of projects did you work on?
This summer, I worked as a senior investment analyst interning with Nordic Impact Funds (NIF), a Copenhagen and Uganda-based impact investment firm that supports early-stage enterprises driving climate resilience, financial inclusion, and improved livelihoods across East Africa. I worked on two main projects: First, I supported the strategic design of a Fund of Funds for Uganda’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF), a pioneering effort to mobilize pension capital into local private equity and venture funds. Second, I worked on an investability assessment for Ethiopia, exploring the policy, regulatory, and capital market landscape to inform future fund strategy. I also had the opportunity to review investment cases and contribute to the firm’s gender-lens investing work, which deepened my understanding of how equity and impact can be embedded in investment decisions from the start.
What did you learn this summer?
One of the most important lessons was how aligned capital and policy can shape development outcomes at scale.
Whether helping design a long-term investment strategy for Uganda’s pension system or unpacking the structural barriers to investment in Ethiopia, I saw how catalytic financing can complement public systems to drive inclusive growth. I also learned how NIF approaches climate adaptation not as a side issue but as a central investment theme, whether through irrigation technologies in Kenya, farm digitization in Tanzania, or savings platforms in Uganda. It was a powerful reminder that meaningful innovation often comes from local entrepreneurs solving local problems.
“[My experience] showed me how thoughtfully deployed capital can help build community-level resilience to climate shocks and financial instability.”
What were some highlights?
What I found most rewarding was gaining insight into how NIF’s portfolio companies are transforming challenges into opportunities such as Jamii.one digitizing informal savings groups in Ethiopia, to MazaoHub unlocking land ownership and agency for women farmers in Tanzania. It showed me how thoughtfully deployed capital can help build community-level resilience to climate shocks and financial instability. The experience has bridged my academic training with real-world application and strengthened my resolve to use finance as a lever for systemic change.
How does your summer internship fit into your academic and professional goals?
This internship was a perfect continuation of my work at HKS. It allowed me to apply tools from development economics, finance, and policy analysis in a setting that demands strategic thinking and practical execution. It also confirmed my long-term interest in working at the intersection of impact finance and public leadership, particularly in African contexts. I hope to continue shaping investment strategies that unlock local potential, improve governance, and center inclusion ideally through roles that combine policymaking and financial innovation. Eventually, I aim to bring these experiences back to Ethiopia in a leadership capacity.
In the context of today’s challenges, what role should emerging policy leaders play in shaping climate and sustainability efforts?
Emerging policy leaders must be connectors and system-thinkers able to bridge disciplines, sectors, and communities. Climate and sustainability are not just environmental issues; they’re deeply tied to questions of justice, access, and long-term resilience. We need leaders who can understand both the power of capital and the importance of grassroots participation who know how to work alongside communities rather than prescribe solutions from the top.
What I saw this summer at Nordic Impact Funds reinforces that the most impactful work often comes from collaboration between local entrepreneurs, patient investors, and thoughtful public institutions.
Bhuvan Ravindran MPP 2026
Center for Large Landscape Conservation, Bozeman, Montana
Tell us a bit about your background.
I am a second-year MPP student from New Delhi, India, where I worked as a research analyst at the climate policy think tank, Council on Energy, Environment, and Water, on international climate negotiations, and developed sub-national policy on sustainable cooling. Before that, I worked as a litigation lawyer on corporate and environmental matters. But let me rewind a bit ...
The environmental conservation bug bit me hard, twice! The first time was in March 2010. I was in 10th grade and returned home after visiting a national park extremely disheartened after not seeing a tiger. When I read why and learned deforestation and poaching are plummeting their numbers, I went knocking on doors the next day to solicit my community’s support for the Save Our Tigers campaign. The second time was in October 2011, when I finally saw the majestic tiger during a safari in India’s Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve and realized I want to create a world where man and wildlife can live in harmony.
Where did you intern this summer, and what kind of projects did you work on?
I was a policy intern at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC) in Bozeman, Montana. CLLC works to connect large landscapes globally across boundaries to achieve climate resilience through science, policy, practice, and partnerships.
My first assignment involved profiling best practices in connectivity conservation across the world, documenting the diverse legal and policy mechanisms as well as the innovative conservation practices that countries employ to protect and connect large landscapes of ecological significance. The questions I asked were: what works well and where else can those models of transboundary conservation be scaled? I also studied different financial mechanisms that can create income or livelihoods for local conservation communities, with an eye to scale and export these practices to other landscapes and seascapes with similar biogeographic and socio-economic conditions.
Another assignment involved examining global datasets to identify socio-economic indicators that can be integrated into connectivity conservation to design more inclusive projects.
CLLC is the Secretariat to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group, and I assisted with the Secretariat’s tasks, too. Along with my CLLC teammates, I visited wildlife crossings as well as creeks and culverts where road ecologists established camera traps to understand wildlife movement around linear infrastructure.
What did you learn this summer?
A lot! But if I had to choose four things they would be as follows.
First, our planet’s resilience is dependent not just on the existence of biodiversity but also on its movement. Maintaining genetic diversity, the flow of ecological services, and the ability for species to respond to changing climatic conditions or fragmentation pressures depends on their ability to move across landscapes and seascapes.
Second, most of the world’s biodiversity and carbon sinks lie outside protected areas in habitats that form critical links in a network of protected areas. Preserving these connections is critical to prevent habitat fragmentation and maximize the co-benefits of mitigating climate change and maintaining ecological integrity.
Third, law and policy play a critical role in creating an enabling environment for ecological connectivity. Socioeconomic, historic, and cultural factors, in turn, shape a nation or region’s law and policy ecosystem—they must be carefully considered when negotiating new or scaling existing partnerships and mechanisms.
And lastly, there is an investment gap that needs to be bridged to achieve well-protected and connected ecosystems. Large corporations and investors are still concentrated in the climate and clean energy space as opposed to biodiversity. The narrative continues to be framed in a binary as opposed to coherently. Designing coherent and bespoke landscape level solutions that provide climate, ecological, and economic co-benefits is the way forward.
“There is an opportunity for peace that is inherent in transboundary wildlife migration. It can open alternative routes for bilateral diplomacy while creating sustainable livelihood and conservation outcomes.”
What were some highlights?
Definitely the immersive experience of working in-person with the team in Montana! How often do you wrap up work at 5 p.m., only to hike the Bridger Mountains with your boss afterwards?
I visited wildlife crossings with road ecologists, going into creeks and culverts to experience what it would feel like for a grizzly bear or elk trying to cross a busy highway or move through a city. I was also able to interview practitioners and conservation directors from different organizations who are working on interesting conservation models across the Rocky Mountains. I also went tubing for the first time in Missoula’s Clark Fork River, wading in the Gallatin River, floating in the Blackfoot River, and drove into Yellowstone National Park while discussing and witnessing international and local conservation policy at play with my colleagues. What’s more, I also got to attend and campaign at a Dave Matthews concert to raise funds for conservation!
I left Montana with clarity that I know what I want to do. That’s extremely empowering for me.
How does your summer internship fit into your academic and professional goals?
This summer internship helped me gain the clarity I needed for my second-year MPP capstone project, the Policy Analysis Exercise. After speaking with practitioners, policy experts, and conservation directors from different organizations, I was able to gather sufficient insights. I will work to create a case for investing in transboundary conservation in certain conflict zones with large mammal migrations. My objective is to understand the potential of such conservation models to preserve ecosystems while creating peace and local livelihoods. There is an opportunity for peace that is inherent in transboundary wildlife migration. It can open alternative routes for bilateral diplomacy while creating sustainable livelihood and conservation outcomes.
In the context of today’s challenges, what role should emerging policy leaders play in shaping climate and sustainability efforts?
I feel every emerging policy leader must actively engage in open dialogue, particularly with stakeholders and professionals with different views. In the context of transboundary conservation, it is only possible to connect habitats when you connect people and their mutual interests.
And importantly, to counteract a pervasive feeling of helplessness in the face of multiple converging global crises, young policy leaders must focus on creating local successes that can be scaled. This leads to more tangible, measurable, and achievable precedents that create hope, thereby reinforcing positive action.
Sumedha Tanwar MPP 2026
International Finance Corporation’s Climate Business Department and the Climate Bonds Initiative
Tell us a bit about your background.
I’m a second-year MPP, originally from the town of Jind, India. Prior to HKS, I was based in Geneva, working with the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Nature and Climate to scale private sector ambitions for investments in ecosystem restoration.
Where did you intern this summer, and what kind of projects did you work on?
This summer, I had the opportunity to work with two organizations on two exciting projects.
With the International Finance Corporation—a member of the World Bank Group—I worked with its Climate Business Department to assess the global market maturity of green buildings, to strengthen the case for them. Green buildings lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions by the buildings sector, which currently contributes 40 percent of total emissions worldwide. Additionally, I conducted policy research for the South Caucasus region on policy instruments to support a larger market penetration rate of green buildings.
And with the Climate Bonds Initiative, I joined their Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) team to analyze the decarbonization of steel and cement sectors—often considered hard-to-abate sectors—in Brazil. I also helped to identify key stakeholders for the LAC team to engage with for this analysis and did a deep literature review of financial instruments and bonds issuances for Brazil’s steel and cement sectors. This research may be featured in the organization’s flagship annual reports.
What did you learn this summer?
I dug deep into the world of sustainable finance and how financial instruments like green bonds can help reduce the climate finance gap. Furthermore, I learned how investing in greener construction is a more economical and sustainable solution for emerging markets. As a result, I dug even deeper into policy mechanisms that can help support this finance flow in green buildings.
What were some highlights?
The opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of topics that have interested me for a long time. Some of the projects required me to use the skills I learned during my first year of the MPP Program, including quantitative analysis and policy design. It was incredible to test out these skills in the real world—it made me feel more confident about my ability to contribute to real challenges.
“Having a holistic understanding of the science, policy, and finance can help fix the ‘working-in-silos’ nature of current efforts. And getting an HKS education is a valuable opportunity to bridge the gap.”
How does your summer internship fit into your academic and professional goals?
I am a climate girlie. I aspire to contribute to this space in the near future, be it from a policy design, finance, or project design angle. Getting to work on projects that have massive impact on lowering greenhouse gas emissions and use policy as instruments to help solve these challenges—this is a direction connection to my professional and academic goals.
In the context of today’s challenges, what role should emerging policy leaders play in shaping climate and sustainability efforts?
As someone who has spent over a decade in climate advocacy, I see the intersection of public-private-nonprofit partnerships as a big opportunity for policy leaders.
Having a holistic understanding of the science, policy, and finance can help fix the “working-in-silos” nature of current efforts. And getting an HKS education is a valuable opportunity to bridge the gap. I am dedicating my second year in the MPP Program to developing this holistic understanding and preparing myself to address the challenges faced by humanity.
Photos courtesy of Disha Datta, Sisay Lelissa, Bhuvan Ravindran, and Sumedha Tanwar
