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Environmental Innovations Initiative Campus as a Living Lab Student Fellow

Number of openings = 1

Job Description Summary

The Environmental Innovations Initiative (EII) seeks a student to help launch a new program, Campus as a Living Lab, that will bolster climate and sustainability goals while creating research and learning opportunities for faculty, students, and staff at Penn. Working closely with EII, the Penn Sustainability Office, and other campus partners, the Campus as a Living Lab Student Fellow will raise visibility of existing living lab projects and conduct outreach to identify potential opportunities and partners for future areas of inquiry. 

Housed in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, EII serves as a convener and catalyst for scholarship and education that addresses environmental and climate challenges. The Penn Sustainability Office, which oversees the creation and implementation of the Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 4.0, will be another key partner in launching this program.

Job Description: 

Reporting to the EII Director and the Program Coordinator, the Campus as a Living Lab Student Fellow’s core responsibilities will include supporting the launch of Penn’s Campus as a Living Lab Program by raising visibility of existing living lab projects and conducting outreach to identify potential opportunities and partners for future areas of inquiry.

The Campus as a Living Lab program will help connect interdisciplinary research teams to pursue pilot projects and forge new areas of inquiry that advance the goals of the Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 4.0. Leveraging Penn’s campus as a testbed, these projects and pilots emerge in classroom settings, in labs, and in our Philadelphia community, leading with creativity and a solutions-focused approach to develop tomorrow’s environmental sustainability toolkit. 

The Campus as a Living Lab Student Fellow will be expected to work 5-10 hours per week with at least one hour each week in the EII office during business hours. This position is for the Fall 2025 semester, with the possibility of extension to the spring semester and beyond.

The Campus as a Living Lab Student Fellow will:

  • Research, report, and write stories that highlight existing living lab projects at Penn to date, using these to design and populate a new webpage on the EII website.
  • Support the execution of a Climate Week at Penn event, Transform Penn, which will serve as the soft launch of the Campus as a Living Lab program.
  • Conduct outreach to stakeholders and potential partners to identify areas of inquiry that could drive future living lab projects.
  • Generate a database of Campus as Living Lab opportunities and gather new ideas for possible projects and/or partners.
  • Brainstorm approaches to make data from living lab projects widely accessible.
  • Seek funding opportunities to extend and augment the program.
  • Working with the EII and PSO teams, generate ideas for marketing Campus as a Living Lab program.

This position is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Interested students should submit a cover letter and résumé, and a writing sample that demonstrates an ability to write engagingly for a lay audience, sending these to contact@environment.upenn.edu with the subject line “Campus as a Living Lab Student Fellow.”

Skills and qualifications: 

  • Demonstrated excellence in writing and communication.
  • General familiarity with and knowledge of environmental and sustainability issues.
  • Experience in web content development and/or design.
  • Diplomacy, professionalism, and comfort in engaging with a range of University stakeholders, including students of all levels, senior staff, faculty, and other leaders.
  • Student must be available to work in the EII office at least one hour a week during business hours.