Schneider Summer Fellowships: Rewiring America- 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.
Description of Organization
Rewiring America is the country’s leading electrification nonprofit, focused on electrifying homes and communities. We develop accessible data and tools and build coalitions and partnerships to make going electric easier for households and communities. Rewiring America helps Americans save money, tackle nationwide emissions goals, improve health, and build the next generation of the clean energy workforce.
We are dedicated to helping American households move from surviving to thriving — making the electric path an affordable, desirable and better one for all of us. We signed up for the task of transforming the market to dramatically accelerate home electrification over the next decade. Every single retirement of any machine that runs on fossil fuels is an opportunity for electrification. No one knows how to do it exactly, and everyone will join this journey from a different place. We hope to be welcoming arms and a guiding light for the millions -- and hopefully billions -- of people who will take this journey with us.
We know that for many people, the current experience of electrification is not a positive one. Only a fraction of households will wade through today’s fragmented, high-friction market. Everyone else will wait - until we make electrification a significantly better experience. To do that, we are reimagining and retooling the household consumer experience, simplifying the sales, financing, and installation process in Rewiring Communities. Households must know what upgrades to pursue when, what incentives are available to them, and how electrifying will impact their energy bills. Then they must know how to find well-trained contractors and what they should expect to pay.
Our team does many things to facilitate home retrofits, from heat pump policy to heat pump parties, with an all-star array of skills that dazzle so that we can deliver. While we work in teams, we work across a few streams with one another, usually while wearing many hats (with lightning bolts on them).
Our values animate our work. They represent us in the world and with one another. They are our North Star for guiding our path over the next decade.
Fellowship Description
Building upon our recently published Homegrown Energy report, Rewiring America is exploring innovative ways to accelerate residential electrification in communities to help solve the challenge of data center energy demand growth.
We work hand-in-hand with utilities, hyperscalers, local governments, and community-based organizations to design and implement initiatives that seek to install heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction stoves, heat pump dryers, solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicle chargers in single-family homes. To unlock the grid capacity required for demand growth, we develop best-in-class data analytics and research to quantify the costs, benefits, and broader impacts of decarbonizing communities, We also develop resources, online tools, and training modules to equip communities with the skills and knowledge necessary to educate local residents about the benefits of electrification and advocate for and secure policy victories that accelerate electrification in their area.
The 2026 Schneider fellow will work with Rewiring America’s Community team to support specific projects with utilities, hyperscalers, and communities to quantify the benefits of residential electrification in their service territory and to develop an actionable community electrification roadmap. Depending on the fellow’s skills and interests and the team’s needs at the time of the fellowship, potential project tasks include:
- Developing and/or refining an economic model of the costs, benefits, and energy implications of whole-home electrification and gas load removal based on a detailed understanding of the housing stock, appliance mix (including solar and storage), and energy profiles of a city’s households, including households in the city’s disadvantaged communities.
- Assisting with design of a multi-year whole-home electrification program for a city.
- Conducting an analysis of the greenhouse gas impacts of large discrete fossil fuel terminals to help identify geographic opportunities to prioritize for electrification intervention.
The fellow can expect to work cross-functionally across our Community Implementation, Data Analytics and Research, Product, Policy, and Communications teams at Rewiring America, and interact with external partners (utilities, local government officials, community-based organizations, contractors, and heat pump manufacturers) that are key to making community-scale electrification a reality.
Work Location and Start Date
Rewiring America is a remote organization. There may be opportunities to travel during the summer to meet with team members. Fellows must begin work by June 22, 2026.
Eligibility:
For complete eligibility requirements, please review our program policies in its entirety.
Applicants must be:
- enrolled at Stanford for the winter and spring quarters of this academic year (2025-26); and
- be in good academic standing and not on suspension
Undergraduates and graduate students from all academic disciplines are encouraged to apply, and applicants may vary in academic interests, public service involvement, and experience. Priority will be given to students who have completed fewer than two previous Cardinal Quarter opportunities.
Requirements:
Selected Fellows are expected to begin service by June 22, 2026 for this summer fellowship. All fellows are required to work with their community partners full-time (35-40 hours) for twelve consecutive weeks at their placements. Other commitments include the following:
Quarter before fellowship
- Complete an online program orientation.
- Complete the Engaging in Ethical and Effective Service workshop or worksheet.
- Attend Schneider Fellows cohort session(s)
- Identify and meet with an on-campus mentor at least once.
- Design a personal learning plan and share the learning plan with site supervisor and on-campus mentor.
- Complete all required pre-orientation forms.
During fellowship
- Submit a brief preliminary report.
- Submit a final report, complete a program evaluation, and correspond with fellowship donor(s) as requested by fellowships program staff.
Quarter after fellowship
- Meet with on-campus mentor at least once.
- Participate in outreach activities to share the experience and help publicize the program.
Selection Process:
For those who seek assistance, advising is available at the Haas Center to help students develop their applications.
This fellowship is intended for individuals whose application, references, and interview demonstrate
- an integration of the fellowship experience with applicant’s academic, personal and/or career goals
- prior demonstrated interest or involvement in the subject area, including related coursework
- a compelling match between applicant’s skills and interests and an organization’s work and needs
- strong potential for the fellowship experience to deepen a candidate’s understanding of an identified community issue or challenge
Complete applications are screened, finalists interviewed, and fellows selected by our partner organizations with the intention to award fellowships within six weeks of the application deadline. Applicants are responsible for checking their Stanford email (including Spam folders) and responding promptly to interview invitations. Failure to respond to an interview invitation will result in withdrawal of the application.
Applicants should respond promptly (within 48 hours) via email to a fellowship offer, or the offer will be rescinded. Once an applicant accepts a fellowship offer, the student should promptly notify all other Stanford and non-Stanford programs to which they have applied that they have accepted another offer and to withdraw their candidacy.
