At the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, training the next generation of climate and energy leaders is central to our mission. As the 2025 academic year comes to a close, we’re proud to showcase how our new Institute has championed and meaningfully engaged with outstanding University of Chicago students.
This year, hundreds of students connected with top employers at our first climate and energy career fair, we offered undergrads full-time summer research assistantships for the first time thanks to support from our new Polsky Energy Transition Leadership Academy, and our student delegations attended top global forums in energy and climate policy, industry and technology. Most importantly, we launched a unique new undergraduate major—further establishing the University of Chicago as a leading hub for students passionate about tackling the global challenges of climate change.
Explore this year’s student highlights below. Thank you for being part of this growing community—we look forward to building on this momentum in the fall!
Launching a New Curriculum, Degree Programs
Recognizing both the critical nature and complexity of the climate and growth challenge, we introduced the Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth, which teaches students to have a 360-degree view of the climate challenge and to appreciate varied perspectives.
The University is launching several degree programs based on the Chicago Curriculum, including an undergraduate major and minor that students can declare starting July 1. The University plans to launch additional degree programs based on the curriculum.
Chicago Curriculum Undergraduate Major What They’re Saying
Furthering Experiential Learning
We launched the Polsky Energy Transition Leadership Academy, which supports experiential learning and career development. In the future, this will include an experiential learning course offered for majors during a September term that takes students to locations pivotal to understanding the climate and growth challenge.
It will also allow us to continue to offer opportunities for students to connect with global stakeholders through participation in treks and major climate and energy gatherings. We sponsored students to attend six conferences throughout this year. As one example, we worked with Career Advancement to send a delegation of 15 College students and 10 graduate students to Baku, Azerbaijan for COP29—the third year the University sponsored a delegation. The students had the opportunity to learn from and network with leaders in government, industry and NGOs and make real-world connections to what they were learning in the classroom.
Additionally, because immersive, experiential learning is foundational to the Chicago Curriculum, we’re jointly hosting with Ahmedabad University’s Climate Institute a new India Summer Fellows Program. Fifteen UChicago students will travel to India for three weeks in July to learn about climate and growth issues in an Indian context through classroom and field-based training.
The Polsky Academy UChicago at COP India Summer Fellows Program
UChicago at CERAWeek
Students Get Front-Row Seat to the Biggest Week in Energy
Twelve students from the College, Law School, Booth and Harris traveled to Houston for a week at the energy industry’s leading conference CERAWeek. The students were our first cohort to attend the week-long conference, which is designed to advance new ideas, insights and solutions to the biggest challenges facing the future of energy. The students learned not just from the exclusive talks, but also from face-to-face interactions with energy experts.
The networking opportunities were invaluable. Engaging with professionals from diverse backgrounds not only expanded my knowledge but also opened doors for future collaborations. These connections will be instrumental in shaping my career and will also serve as a resource for fellow students exploring the energy sector.
Ali Rajani, Harris Public Policy
Advancing Career Development and Mentoring
We provide career development and mentorship opportunities through internships, research assistantships, and networking events. At our launch, we held what will become an annual career fair, where we hosted a diverse group of 30 employers including Exelon, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Invenergy LLC, JPMorganChase, and more.
We also host a monthly career series where students meet UChicago alumni and learn about their varied careers. This year, the Institute hosted an energy policy expert at the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee and the head of ESG content at Nasdaq, among others.
To provide students with real-world knowledge into a career track they are interested in exploring, we provide students with summer internship stipends, allowing students to accept what are often highly rewarding positions that they otherwise would not be able to afford to take. This summer, five students will be pursuing prestigious roles—three of them will be working for the United Nations. Additionally, the Institute provides research assistantships that teach students the research process while expanding their understanding of the energy transition. We hosted eight Bartlett and DRW Fellows this year, who contributed to research projects on everything from nuclear power to corporate sustainability commitments.
Career Fair Career Series Internship Stipend Research Opportunities
Polsky Research Fellows
The First Cohort of Undergraduate Research Assistants
Twenty-seven UChicago undergraduates will hone their research skills this summer as the first cohort of Polsky Research Fellows. The new program, sponsored by the Polsky Energy Transition Leadership Academy, is our first large-scale initiative providing full-time, paid summer research opportunities to University of Chicago undergraduates. The Fellowships will provide students with the opportunity to work closely with faculty mentors on cutting-edge research projects in a wide range of disciplines.
Fostering and Expanding a Climate Community
We work to foster and support a robust student climate community on campus. The Energy and Climate Club—which our leadership helped to cultivate—celebrated two successful years as an RSO and co-hosted with Northwestern their first Climate Energy Conference.
The event—sponsored by the Institute, along with RWE, Marathon Capital, Energy CX, and Constellation Energy—attracted nearly 300 attendees and served to bridge the gap between what students learn in classrooms and what working professionals are doing in the energy and climate space.
We also supported the formation of a new student group: UChicago Sustainability Dialogue—a student-led platform dedicated to fostering open conversations about sustainability issues, inspiring thoughtful reflection, and driving meaningful action across the University. Harris student Emmanuel Mayani and Booth student Paul Salach conceived of the idea while attending COP29 together as part of the Institute’s delegation. The group now has ten writers, a weekly article, and looks forward to becoming an official RSO in the coming academic year.
Energy & Climate Club UChicago Sustainability Dialogue
Climate Case Competition
Students Devise Solutions to Modern-Day Climate Problems
The Institute sponsors an annual competition, hosted by the Energy and Climate Club and the Phoenix Sustainability Initiative, which provides UChicago students with the opportunity to critically investigate a modern-day problem posed by a competition partner.
Thirty-eight College students formed eleven case teams for the 2025 competition, all vying for a chance to win $2,500 in cash prizes. They formed strategies to aid the competition partner, Acciona Energía—the largest global energy company operating exclusively in renewable technologies—in developing a strategy to expand and optimize systems that combine solar energy and sustainable agriculture. Participants were mentored by graduate students and professionals in the renewable energy and finance sectors to develop their proposals.
Convening Critical Climate Dialogues
We work to bring together those across campus interested in climate and energy. This year, we debuted Climate Frontiers, which served as our launch event. We’ll now host this annually as a time to convene the entire campus around climate change topics.
Climate Frontiers will include a climate showcase and poster session to highlight the work underway at UChicago, career fair, and a leadership forum. Last year’s event featured Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, White House Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy John Podesta, former Department of Energy Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar (now Deputy Commerce Secretary), Exelon CEO Calvin Butler, Senator Dick Durbin and former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp. Stay tuned for Climate Frontiers 2025 coming this fall!
Along with hosting Climate Frontiers, we held several other events that brought key leaders to campus. Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Khar, former lead U.S. climate lawyer Sue Biniaz, and former climate advisor to President Donald Trump George David Banks gathered for a discussion on the future of international climate policy. The former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz, and former U.S. Climate Envoy Todd Stern also visited for public conversations.
Climate Frontiers Global Cooperation Ernie Moniz Todd Stern
Meet Our Team
Our Education and Student Affairs team is growing! Visit them in their new office in Ryerson Hall, Room 157. Or, if you want to learn more about our student opportunities and degree programs over the summer, feel free to email them and set up a virtual meeting.
Katie Fassbinder, katief@uchicago.edu
Trista Trone, ttrone@uchicago.edu
Sativa Volbrecht, svolbrecht@uchicago.edu
Sophia Wennstedt, swennstedt@uchicago.edu