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Center for Sustainable Business | Sustainability and Human Rights Summer Fellowship

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Career Development

MBA Sustainability and Human Rights Summer Fellowship

About the Program

The MBA Summer Fellowship in Sustainability and Human Rights pairs NYU Stern’s sharpest and most committed graduate students with companies determined to meet ambitious social, environmental and financial goals. Jointly managed by the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and the Center for Sustainable Business since 2017, these summer internships offer first-year MBA students an opportunity to gain practical and applied experience in sustainable business while supporting companies in advancing their commitments. The Fellowship is designed to provide students with direct experience in sustainability and/or human rights issues in relevant divisions within a company, including areas such as supply chain, community engagement, human resources, marketing, and finance. Past fellows have worked on a wide range of projects including a greenhouse gas accounting for a food startup’s supply chain transformation along with an impact assessment to identify priority improvement areas; benchmarking on internal ESG strategy against consumer-facing sustainability standards at a leading furniture and retail brand; and on fair compensation and responsible supply chain leadership at a footwear and apparel giant. Learn more about past projects below. 

 

By participating in the Summer Fellowship host companies:

  • Gain access to top-tier student talent at one of the top business schools in the country
  • Leverage the business acumen and training in sustainability and human rights that Stern MBA students receive to support the team and company’s social and environmental priorities 
  • Provide applied opportunities for students to develop skills in critical thinking and project

Management

 

Fellows selected through a competitive process will:

  • Complete a specialized training program featuring academics and practitioners in sustainability and human rights to prepare them for their internships
  • Spend a minimum of 10 weeks working directly for the host company 
  • Participate in a post internship knowledge sharing session with peers and company hosts to present their learnings and network with the larger group

 

Students: Information sessions for interested students are held in November and applications open in December. Job offers are made in March. 
 

Companies that are interested in participating in the Fellowship program and hosting an MBA intern should reach out to sustainablebusiness@stern.nyu.edu for additional information. 

 

Past Fellowship Host Companies 

Past Fellowship Host Companies

Please find our two-pager here for more information.


Summer 2024 Fellowship Recipients

Ali Bernstein (MBA '25) - New Balance

Ali had a wonderful experience this summer as the Responsible Leadership MBA Intern at New Balance. Her mid-summer deliverable was a presentation on her benchmarking analysis regarding double materiality assessments, which will be required due to upcoming CSRD mandates in Europe. For her final deliverable, she presented her gap analysis of New Balance factory wage data, which will be used to help ensure that workers are being paid a fair wage based on global standards.

Read more about Ali's experience

Dhaval Chheda (MBA '25) - Apple

Dhaval worked with Apple’s ESCI team and his main project was aligning supplier code and processes in alignment with UNGP guidelines, current and upcoming legislations. Additionally, it was improving the reporting and environment within facilities for supply chain workers empowering them with labor rights.

Read more about Dhaval's experience

Anestya Pramana (MBA '25) - Streetlife Ventures

Anestya contributed to the development of investment theses for key verticals, including Energy, Building, Water & Waste, Mobility, and Adaptation & Resilience. She also lead the due diligence for Streetlife Ventures. This process involved in-depth market analysis, financial modeling, and assessing the company’s potential for scalability and impact.
 

Read more about Anestya's experience

Prashant Pokhriyal (MBA '25) - Esusu

Prashant interned for Esusu, a fintech startup dedicated to helping people reach their financial goals. Currently, Esusu primarily achieves this through Rent Reporting, a service in which Esusu-onboarded renters pay rent, Esusu reports these payments to major credit bureaus, and the renters have their credit score boosted as a result.  

Read more about Prashant's experience

Aaroshi Sahgal (MBA '25) - Tory Burch

Aaroshi was fortunate to intern on the Sustainability team at Tory Burch this summer and was reporting directly to the Global Head of ESG Strategy, a fellow Stern alumna. Her central project focused on developing a five-year roadmap illustrating how Tory Burch should shape its ESG reporting & disclosure strategy. 

Read more about Aaroshi's experience

Victoria Selian (MBA '25) - OnePointFive

As a summer associate at OnePointFive, Victoria gained invaluable experience in sustainability consulting. Her projects involved assisting clients across various industries, including education, philanthropy, and healthcare, in assessing their carbon footprints and developing strategies for emissions reduction. 

Read more about Victoria's experience

George Qiao (MBA '25) - Williams Sonoma

This summer, George was thrilled to work as a sustainability intern at Williams Sonoma, the parent company of West Elm and other popular brands like Pottery Barn. His time there was nothing short of incredible. The internship provided him with a comprehensive understanding of how a sustainability team functions within a large corporation, further igniting his passion for sustainability research and clarifying his future career direction.

Read more about George's experience

Summer 2023 Fellowship Recipients

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KJ had the incredible opportunity to be an MBA Strategy intern at New Balance on their Responsible Leadership and Global Compliance team. Her main project this summer focused on conducting robust data analysis, and three different deliverables that helped provide insight on suppliers and inform potential impact on workers and productivity levels in the post-COVID landscape.

Read about KJ's experience

Akshat's work at Williams Sonoma revolved around advancing the company's ESG goals. He developed strategies to reduce scope 1 emissions in a significant way, aligned with the organization's science-based targets. 

Read about Akshat's experience

Sejal worked on Nespresso's team to analyze recycling engagement data for Nespresso’s B2B Clients across the last 5 years, including major hotel chains, universities, and companies. She used tools like Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Power BI to analyze recycling trends across industries then built out data visualizations to provide a high-level overview as part of her final project.

Read about Sejal's experience

As an ESG/Sustainability Fellow at Whisps, Doris worked on two projects, a greenhouse gas accounting project focusing on the company’s supply chain transformation and an impact assessment to identify priority improvement areas to further reduce Whisps’ GHG footprint.

Read about Doris' experience

As a Sustainability Fellow at Tory Burch, Debbie's worked closely with the Global Head of ESG Strategy to benchmark the company’s internal ESG strategy against the B Lab’s consumer-facing sustainability standards.

Read about Debbie's experience

Summer 2022 Fellowship Recipients

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Kirsten will lead two high visibility projects in our Environmental Social Governance (ESG) Practice. In the first, she will leverage materiality assessment results to drive impact and inform ESG strategy and in the second, she will conduct research to develop innovative ESG offerings to support impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and business growth.

Read about Kirsten's experience

Isa will work with Williams-Sonoma, Inc. on projects related to supply chain innovation, sustainability, circular economy, worker education and empowerment, and ESG reporting. The post will involve research, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and strategy development.

Read about Isa's experience

Abbey will support New Balance on their fair compensation work and supply chain responsible leadership program.

Read about Abbey's experience

Yurany will work on two projects with Gore Mutual: one focusing on CSB's Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI) methodology and the other to support with developing a framework for the launch of their ESG program.

Read about Yurany's experience

Puja will chart a course that is both sustainable and impactful at a global scale. She will work with stakeholders of Sourcing, Operations, Business Intelligence, Tech, Service Delivery and Education, matching everyday business as usual requirements with ambitious targets for carbon neutrality.

Read about Puja's experience

Sophie will support Nespresso's social and environmental impact. Some deliverables will include the development of social impact strategy, including BCorp principles, of competitors and other certified BCorp companies of similar size and/or industry, conduct research of end-of-life capsules for selected key markets, help drive the environmental strategy/plan, and support waste audits at our head office and/or local boutique locations

Read about Sophie's experience

Summer 2021 Fellowship Recipients

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Marta supported the BBMG team in creating content for brand and innovation projects, support project management directly with clients, and research and synthesize brand landscapes and consumer reports.

Read about Marta's experience

Maddie assisted Applegate with its Meat Solutions Index (MSI) tool while making the connection back to the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI) model. The MSI tool contemplates a range of factors that can impact the Human Health, Environmental Footprint and Animal Welfare associated with various innovation platforms and potential improvements that can be resourced and advanced to improve the meat system.

Read about Maddie's experience

Taylor worked across Sales, Marketing, Research, and Finance teams to investigate and identify areas for growth in sustainability and will examine the company’s carbon footprint, monetize sustainability efforts and goals, and help to develop a concrete ESG strategy that can be implemented across departments at all levels.

Read about Taylor's experience

Lucie assisted King Arthur Baking Company on projects to operationalize the company’s ambitious sustainability goals and embed their purpose further upstream in the supply chain

Read about Lucie's experience

Pedro will be responsible for supporting priority human rights due diligence of sales and business activities; helping to draft Microsoft’s annual human rights transparency report, and helping to prepare the Human Rights Team’s participation at the UN General Assembly.

Read about Pedro's experience

Nadia will be responsible for supporting priority human rights due diligence of sales and business activities; helping to draft Microsoft’s annual human rights transparency report, and helping to prepare the Human Rights Team’s participation at the UN General Assembly.

Saumya worked with Williams-Sonoma, Inc. on projects related to supply chain innovation, sustainability, circular economy, worker education and empowerment, and ESG reporting. The post will involve research, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and strategy development.

Read about Saumya's experience

Summer 2020 Fellowship Recipients

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Joss applied the ROSI framework to two National Grid investments in energy efficiency and net-zero buildings. This project represents an early attempt by National Grid to monetize its sustainability efforts and, more importantly, a commitment to the energy transition that we need.

Read about Ross's experience

Liz examined William Sonoma Inc’s supply chain, learning how they onboard vendors and track vendor data across their 8 brands, including creating and implementing a baseline survey for West Elm LOCAL vendors to inform their commitments to the 15% Pledge.

Read about Liz's experience

Rebecca's central project was to assess corporate responses to COVID-19 across the Packaged Food & Meats industry, the Restaurant industry, and the Financial Services sector to help build the firm’s understanding of how corporate resilience is connected to overall ESG performance

Read about Rebecca's experience

Leora analyzed how communications highlighting sustainability could enhance Nespresso’s brand identity and support its consumer and sales channel marketing goals.

Read more about Leora's experience

Lily's work included a series of memoranda on how to best ground emergency responses to COVID-19 in human rights principles. In light of evidence that nations around the world have derogated their human rights commitments in order to enact necessary emergency measures, Lily researched ways to protect civilians’ privacy and rights.

Read about Lily's experience

Summer 2019 Fellowship Recipients

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Jamison produced an investment plan for financing smallholder tree crop farmers throughout the world, with a specific focus on cocoa farmers in West Africa.

Read about Jamison's experience

Tara evaluated the Social Consciousness & Innovation team's marketing communication efforts by mapping their strategy across channels. She also analyzed West Elm’s reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), focusing specifically on social compliance disclosures.

Read about Tara's experience

Leah relaunched Nespresso's B2B recycling program, which allows their B2B clients to return their used aluminum coffee capsules to one of Nespresso's partner recycling facilities.

Read about Leah's experience

Sam worked on a research project for the human rights team at Microsoft focused on AI in the military. He conducted due diligence into the potential for Microsoft to be linked to human rights harms from future sales in this area, and to recommend areas for further focus.

Read about Sam's experience

Summer 2018 Fellowship Recipients

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Stephanie researched and developed sector-specific metrics to monitor and assess IFC’s climate-related investments. Specifically, she prepared the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) guidance for Investment Officers on the definition and potentials of CSA and the different metrics used to determine the climate-related impacts of the CSA investments.

Read about Stephanie's experience

Yen's work focused on the LOCAL program, in which West Elm stores curate selections of locally-made products and host events with creative small businesses. With her team, she surveyed LOCAL makers to learn more about their experiences as creative small business owners and how LOCAL helps (or could help) them reach their business objectives.

Read about Yen's experience

Julianne assisted with the preparation for Bloomberg's annual internal conference, where the relevant contacts in the businesses get together to share what they’ve been working on and their plans for the upcoming year. She also researched the corporate governance of specific companies and executive compensation.

Read about Julianne's experience