Teaching Citizenship

Download the Fellowship Program Training Agenda

The Texas Environmental Fellowship Program is an exciting new program founded by the Texas Public Interest Research Group (TexPIRG) Education Fund with the generous support of the Houston Endowment and the Hershey Foundation. The Texas Environmental Fellowship Program was created to help Texas college students study, learn about, and act on the pressing environmental challenges facing our state. The program also serves to connect community groups with needed, trained volunteers and help identify and train potential staff for these groups.

Luke Metzger, Texas Environmental Fellowship Director, and Sarah Gustavus, Fellow, plan a press conference to release a new report on air pollution. Texas Environmental Fellows work with some of Texas’ most experienced advocates to develop real solutions to Texas’ environmental problems.

The Texas Environmental Fellowship Program gives smart, self-directed college students the hands-on training needed to assume a high level of responsibility in the environmental movement. Fellows work side-by-side with Texas’ top environmental researchers, attorneys, scientists, and advocates on issues such as air pollution, coastal degradation, urban sprawl, and children’s environmental health. Participants learn how to not only investigate a problem and come up with a practical solution, but also learn how to convince the media and decision-makers to pay attention and take action.

Through the Texas Environmental Fellowship Program, students gain an educational experience in democratic citizenship. And they get a chance to face up to society’s big problems, take action, and win concrete changes that improve the quality of our lives.

Each semester, 10 students are selected to participate in the Texas Environmental Fellowship Program. Fellows are expected to work 10 hours a week. For this, Fellows earn course-credit and a small stipend.

Fellowships That Put Students' Education To Work On Real-World Problems

The Texas Environmental Fellowship Program is designed to merge the academic background of faculty, the issue expertise of staff, and the idealism of the student body to promote the good of the community.

Fellows work directly with TexPIRG staff, their faculty sponsor, and the organization they intern for. Together they create individually tailored programs around areas of interest, relevant academic requirements, and the needs of the issue at hand.

Training The Next Environmental Leaders

The Texas Environmental Fellowship Program gives topnotch training to students who want to launch an environmental career. In one semester, the program turns students’ passion for change into the concrete skills and hands-on experience it takes to be a leader in the environmental movement. The program starts with a three-day classroom training at the beginning of the semester.

Fellows learn a wide range of grassroots organizing skills and develop a familiarity with campaign strategy. Participants are introduced to different organizing models and provided substantive background on environmental issues and campaigns. Skills trainings include: Building a Volunteer Group, Fundraising, Increasing Public Awareness, Securing Media Coverage, Developing a Campaign, and Collaborating With Other Groups. Additional trainings are held throughout the year.

After the classroom training is completed, Fellows are assigned to work on a campaign for a local environmental group. There are four kinds of fellowships: organizing fellowships, research fellowships, grassroots fellowships and media fellowships.

Organizing Fellowships
Organizing Fellows coordinate an environmental campaign on campus or in the community. Each fellow works closely with a fellowship supervisor to develop a campaign plan, build coalitions, recruit volunteers and organize events.

Recently, Fellows worked with community organizations in an effort to establish a network to track toxic chemicals and potential links to chronic diseases.

Research Fellowships
Research Fellows help analyze our state’s environmental problems and present solutions that activate the campus and community. They create in-depth reports to educate decisionmakers, the media and the public about urgent problems.

TexPIRG research has documented the rising destruction of wilderness areas as well as health threats such as pollution levels in Texas’ rivers, streams and lakes.

Grassroots Fellowships
Grassroots Fellows show how public support is integral in winning environmental campaigns. They generate support from the community by educating the public about important issues and ways to take action.

Fellows played a crucial role in gathering more than 1.2 million public comments to the Forest Service to protect 58.5 million acres of wilderness in our national forests.

Media Fellowships
Media Fellows use newspapers, television and radio to educate the public about the issues. They present research to the media and work to ensure that critical environmental issues make the news.

Fellows helped organize statewide press coverage of a TexPIRG report on threats to pregnant women posed by chlorine in drinking water, including coverage by three radio stations, four television stations and six newspapers.

Texas Environmental Fellows Work On Some Of Texas’ Most Pressing Problems

Coastal Protection
Fellows work to protect our coast by organizing beach cleanups, raising money, and holding town hall meetings to train citizens to be stewards of their waterways.

Clean Air
In order to help fight air pollution, fellows focus on organizing campus and community educational events, researching and releasing reports, and mobilizing public support for clean air solutions.

Environmental Health
Fellows work with public health professionals to document threats to health posed by pollution, build networks of doctors, environmental advocates and concerned citizens, and educate the media.

Clean & Efficient Energy
In conjunction with energy experts, fellows study ways that campuses and communities can become cleaner and more efficient energy users, hold educational events about energy efficiency measures, and work to promote clean, renewable sources like wind, solar and geothermal energy.

Wilderness Protection
In order to ensure the permanent protection of Texas’ wild places, fellows organize campus and community educational events, watchdog local development, release reports, and mobilize public support for open space protection.

Local Public Policy
In addition to the larger campaigns listed above, fellows also work on local projects to monitor air quality, follow policy related to the Clean Air Act, make presentations at local events, prepare outreach materials for public comment, and do research.

To Apply For A Fellowship
Send a resume to Luke Metzger at 1604 1/2 San Antonio St., Austin, TX 78701 or at luke@texpirg.org. We will then arrange an interview.