West LA College is now accepting applications for its environmental justice fellowship. If you’re finishing high school or thinking about starting college, West Los Angeles College has a program worth knowing about — one that pays you to learn, connects you to real careers, and puts environmental justice at the center of everything.
The California Center for Climate Change Education at WLAC is now accepting applications for the Environmental Justice Fellowship, a nine-month paid program offered in partnership with the California Youth Leadership Corps (CYLC). Fellows earn up to $10,000 in stipends and up to $5,000 in scholarships while completing WLAC’s Climate Change Studies Certificate and gaining hands-on experience at a community-based organization.
The program is designed for students from nontraditional, opportunity youth, or first-generation backgrounds, the exact students who are too often shut out of career-building opportunities that typically go unpaid.
“Internships and fellowships are known to increase students’ likelihood of getting jobs, but historically they’ve been unpaid, which means low-income students can’t access them,” said Dr. Jo Tavares, Director of the Climate Center. “These opportunities are a step in the right direction to right that wrong.
Fellows commit to roughly 10 hours per week at a partner organization and 12 hours per week toward coursework. No prior degree is required, just a willingness to enroll at WLAC and complete the certificate within nine months. Applicants ages 18 to 24 are preferred, though older applicants are encouraged to apply.
The fellowship is one of several paid programs offered through the Climate Center, which has placed more than 200 students in paid climate internships since its launch. The Center is the only one in California to address climate change explicitly as a social justice issue and serves as California’s official hub for climate curriculum development across the community college system.
Every career is a climate career. Yours can start here.
To apply or learn more, visit wlac.edu/academics/climate-center/workforce.
