Schneider Summer Fellowships: Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Round 2 - Summer 2026

Through the Schneider Fellows program, Stanford students work at leading U.S. nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the sustainable energy field. Schneider Summer Fellows spend a summer quarter tackling the world’s economic, environmental, social, and technical challenges associated with harnessing energy resources to deliver energy services.

Fellows receive a stipend of $11,500 for a 12-week summer fellowship. Additional funding of up to $1500 is available for fellowship-related travel. 

Environmental Defense Fund internships provide high-quality experiences (including relevant projects and opportunities for networking) that form the foundation for any individual who is serious about pursuing an environmental career.

EDF Schneider Fellowship Dates: Selected EDF Schneider Summer Fellows are expected to begin service on June 8, 2026 (finals schedules permitting) and conclude on August 28, 2026, or to begin service on June 15, 2026. Fellows who begin service on June 15, 2026 will have the week off during the week of August 31st when the EDF offices are closed, and will conclude their fellowships on September 11, 2026. Fellows may work fully remotely during the week of September 7th .

Economics Research Fellowship

Hybrid out of an EDF office in Austin, TX, Boulder, CO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, Raleigh, NC, San Francisco, CA, or Washington D.C. Intern supervisor is in Washington, D.C. and many team members are in New York. 

Program/Department Overview 

EDF’s Economics team utilizes to address environmental challenges by creating economic incentives that align market forces with environmental goals, and strengthens the work of all of EDF’s eight focus areas, including Healthy Communities, where the intern’s contributions will be focused. EDF’s Healthy Communities team is working with communities, scientists, economists, and governments and industry to reduce the risks from global air pollution and toxic chemicals 

Overall Function 

The intern will contribute research, writing, and analytical support to ongoing projects led by the Manager, Economics and Policy, in collaboration with EDF’s Healthy Communities focus area, primarily focusing on EDF’s efforts to measure, monetize, and mitigate the health, and climate harming impacts to communities from petrochemical pollution and other critical anthropogenic sources. As part of this effort, the intern will support the compilation of policy briefs, memos, and discussion papers that will disseminate findings from literature-based discursive research and support the Manager in completing ongoing analytical tasks, which include the use of EDF-designed tools to identify and visualize facility and regional level datasets aimed at capturing the socioeconomic determinants of health risks. The intern will also use insights from this research and other prescribed material developed by EDF teams, to support the Manager in ongoing efforts to embed equity and justice considerations in the Economics team’s work. 

Key Responsibilities 

Tasks will include but are not limited to: 

• Work with data analytical and visualization tools to represent summary statistics and patterns among observations of emissions data from industrial facilities and other sources of pollution 
• Prepare draft sections of discussion papers, policy memos, and shorter work products for internal and external communication with the help of pre-set annotated outlines provided by the team 
• Contribute to developing an internal set of priorities and actionable items for equitable economics work at EDF by delving deeper into prescribed set of case studies and best practices 
• Participate in advancing EDF’s organizational effectiveness and culture goals, so people from all backgrounds and experiences feel connected, included and empowered to address environmental and organizational challenges in ways that align with EDF values. 

Qualifications 

• Enrolled in a degree program with demonstrated interest in public policy, environmental studies, communications, or/and environmental health.
• Coursework and/or experience in technical writing, data analysis, and stakeholder interviews recommended. 
• Basic proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint. 
• Experience in ArcGIS Desktop and/or QGIS preferred. 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. 
• Must be well organized, motivated, and detail-oriented. 
• Ability to multi-task, prioritize and meet deadlines. 
• Ability to work in a team setting and have the ability to work independently when projects are due. 
• Demonstrate self-awareness, cultural competency and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across all cultures and backgrounds. 
• Demonstrate initiative and problem solving skills.