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Apr
16

NextGen climate internship program

The NextGen Climate Internship Program helps young people gain experience implementing climate action initiatives in local government. Through climate-focused work, the program provides interns with professional development and networking opportunities. 

smiling man paddling in water surrounded by trees
Joshua Kim, 2023 NextGen Intern, helps the King County Noxious Weeds team with noxious weed removal.

NextGen Climate Internship Program

Take the next step in your climate career!

Created in 2022, the NextGen Climate Internship Program helps young people gain experience implementing climate action initiatives in local government. Through dedicated support, these interns contribute to a variety of climate-focused work and the County’s implementation of the 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP). Projects cover many priority actions from the 2020 SCAP including community engagement, promoting the County’s growing climate workforce, and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Want to learn more about the program? Below you can hear directly from our first cohort of interns!

Professional Development

men paging through document

John Dunstan, 2024 NextGen Intern, tabling with Metro’s green jobs fair. 

Supporting interns in their climate career is a key piece of the NextGen Climate program. Interns receive a professional development budget that they can put towards project-driven certifications and career skills. Interns have used these funds to attend conferences, take language and accessibility courses, earn a variety of certifications, and more.

Throughout the year, the NextGen Climate program gives each intern the opportunity to show what they have learned in guided professional development sessions. These short presentations allow interns to show their progress on each project and gives the remaining intern cohort the opportunity to collaborate and support each other. Once the projects are all completed, each intern will create their own NextGen Climate portfolio and share their findings with ECO and other county employees.


Networking

group of people sitting around table in office

To help interns set up early career networks, the NextGen Climate program has created a series of Climate Career Spotlights. At each speaking event, the intern cohort gets to hear from a government, non-profit, or business leader working in the climate field. These leaders then share their insight, provide advice, and answer intern questions on what has been successful in their own careers.
Through these spotlights, career chats, and other networking efforts the NextGen Climate program helps interns gain new connections and explore opportunities even beyond their projects.

Policy Implementation

People gathered around poster board with post-it notes on it

Sunny Song, 2024 NextGen Intern, takes part in a 2025 SCAP update workshop. 

Interns work with their project supervisors to solve some of the County’s pressing climate problems. Each project builds on the initiatives outlined in the SCAP’s three target areas: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, making the county climate resilient, and uplifting frontline communities.
At the end of the internship each intern cohort works together to create an annual report. By taking a look at these reports, you can learn more about the NextGen Climate projects and the incredible work our interns have done!
•2022 NextGen Climate Annual Report
•2023 NextGen Climate Annual Report
•2024 NextGen Climate Annual Report

ECO opens the application early each year. Check out the Careers website for more information on this and other opportunities at King County.

For more information, contact Anoushka Adhav, Climate & Workforce Project Manager, at anadhav@kingcounty.gov.


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