Hands-On Sustainability Experience
Cornell Atkinson sponsors summer internships for Cornell students who want to fully immerse themselves in project teams working at the intersection of science, policy, community, and the private sector. Embedded across the country in the offices of our close partner the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Cornell students emerge understanding how lasting change is co-created among multiple stakeholders and with a set of real skills that allow them to contribute to the process.
How to Apply
Eligibility:
- Primarily intended for Cornell undergraduate students, with select opportunities available to Cornell graduate students
The 2026 Cycle Is Open
- Apply by Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. ET
2026 Atkinson-EDF Summer Internships
Details available on the Experience Cornelll platform
(search for “Atkinson-EDF” or via the following links)
- Blue Carbon GIS (Graduate and Undergraduate)
- Carbon Pricing (Undergraduate)
- Climate-Smart Agriculture Communications (Undergraduate)
- Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management Policy (Graduate and Undergraduate)
- Net Zero Data Analysis (Undergraduate)
- Ocean Data Communications & Storytelling (Undergraduate)
- Petrochemicals (Graduate)
- Psychological Science (Undergraduate)
- U.S. Power Sector (Undergraduate)
- Wetlands Science (Undergraduate)
Meet Xindi Liu ’26, 2024 Atkinson-EDF Summer Intern
This past summer, rising junior Xindi Liu (Cornell CALS/Biometry & Statistics and Environmental Engineering) was a Climate and Health intern with Dr. Fiona Lo and Dr. Julia Gohlke at EDF. She helped gather systematic literature reviews and analyses of the potential relationship between increasing ambient temperatures and the risk of preterm human births.