Bren Environmental Leadership (BEL) Program

The Bren Environmental Leadership (BEL) program offers paid summer fellowships for pairs of undergraduate and graduate students (Bren MESM) to work on environmental science projects. The program includes a wide range of projects each year, including both academic environmental science research and internships with Bren-UCSB partner organizations. The mission of this program is to increase the number of first-generation, low-income, and/or underrepresented students working towards careers in the environmental field and natural sciences. The 10-week intensive summer program provides fellowship support, networking, and training opportunities for BEL Fellows through connection with learning communities, career skills workshops, and presentation opportunities.

Program Details

• Undergraduate students receive direct support from a Bren graduate student mentor, and graduate students gain valuable mentoring and project management experience
• Summer program includes weekly professional development workshops and community building events during summer quarter
• Project teams prepare short, flash-talk style presentations to the BEL community at the end of the summer and are invited to participate in the Mantell Symposium in Environmental Justice and Conservation Innovation in Fall
   

Apply to the BEL Program Today!

Summer 2025 Opportunities

Undergraduate Opportunities

The Bren Environmental Leadership (BEL) Program is accepting applications for 6 undergraduate summer internship positions! These positions are only open to full-time UCSB students with at least 2 quarters left before graduation at the time of application (summer + Fall quarter). These internship opportunities provide a $6500 stipend for a 10-week position. The undergraduate intern will be paired with and mentored by a Bren graduate intern. 

The application deadline is April 2. Additional details about the projects and application are provided in the attached documents.

1. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) - California Kelp Research and Recovery Synthesis: TNC is seeking an undergraduate student to work alongside a graduate mentor to develop a synthesis report of historical and ongoing kelp recovery and research efforts in California. The synthesis report will be organized by and include considerations related to restoration and recovery technique (grazer suppression, kelp enhancement, predator recovery, etc.), region (north, central, south), and species (giant kelp, bull kelp, understory, etc.), with exact formatting co-developed with BEL students. The undergraduate student will be responsible for conducting and documenting a background literature review, scheduling and hosting discussions with content experts, and drafting and formatting a polished document that will provide a comprehensive overview of kelp recovery efforts in California. Once completed, this report will serve as a key reference document for the kelp restoration community, as well as state agency developing the Kelp Restoration Management Plan and global initiatives working towards 30 x 30 commitments for kelp.  
    
2. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) - Ghost Gear Wrangling - Working with California Fishing Fleets to Prevent Whale Entanglements: The BEL undergraduate fellow will work alongside TNC and PCFFA staff to:
   • Develop training materials to support scaling lost gear programs in ports across the state and enhance use of TNC apps to catalyze gear recovery.
   • Synthesize data and reports on lost gear recovery efforts to date and develop communication materials to share findings with key stakeholders.
   • Collect and analyze user feedback on TNC lost gear apps to support development.
   • Create outreach materials, such as communication resources and social media content, to raise awareness about the lost gear recovery initiative among different maritime user groups.
   • Develop a long-term plan for lost gear recovery across the state including financial analysis, policy recommendations, and community outreach.
      
3. Assessing Capacity for Climate-Driven Evolution with MPAs: This project aims to identify which species and regions globally are most likely to experience these unanticipated responses to protection due to the competing evolutionary processes of protection and climate change and make management and design recommendations based on this information. This will be accomplished by first reviewing the literature and synthesizing this info into a novel index of evolutionary potential, which will consider traits contributing to rapid evolution and whether the effect is positive or negative to quantify which regions and species conservation outcomes may be impacted by evolution. Finally, this project hopes to synthesize the information into MPA design and management recommendations that may best mitigate negative effects of evolution and enhance possible positive outcomes. The undergraduate student will be responsible for two, maybe three aspects of the project over the summer: 1) building off a prior literature review by reading additional literature and keeping an annotated bibliography, 2) collecting data into a tidy formatted spreadsheet using publicly available databases and literature reviews, and 3) assisting with the calculation of an index of evolutionary potential.
    
4. Biodiversity as a natural pesticide: investigating bats, and waterfowl, environmental justice in CA’s central valley: This project aims to assess how bats and waterfowl contribute to reducing pesticide use and pesticide exposure risks in agricultural communities. This position offers opportunities to develop skills in geospatial analysis, remote sensing, and environmental justice research. The mentee will also be encouraged to present their findings at conferences and contribute to a peer-reviewed publication.
   The undergraduate mentee will gain hands-on experience in environmental data science by:
   • Analyzing Doppler weather radar data to track bat and waterfowl movements.
   • Conducting spatial analyses to identify communities disproportionately exposed to pesticides
   • Assisting with data visualization and contributing to public outreach materials.
      
5. Dendrochronological Analysis of Sugar Pine in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks: This project focuses on using dendrochronological methods (tree-ring analysis) to reconstruct the environmental history of sugar pines. By creating tree-ring chronologies and isolating environmental stress signals such as drought and disease impacts, this research aims to inform conservation strategies and protect vulnerable ecosystems. The undergraduate researcher will actively contribute to lab-based dendrochronological research. Tasks will include sample preparation, ring-width measurements, cross-dating, data analysis, and interpreting results alongside regional climate data. The student will also assist in creating figures and visual representations of findings. The mentee will gain hands-on experience with dendrochronological methods, data analysis software (e.g., R, COFECHA), and environmental science research practices.
    
6. Changing agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa through the Climate-Food-Urbanization nexus: This project will explore the following questions:
   • What are the impacts of agricultural investment on crop production (yields), crop choices, and land area under agricultural production?
   • Whether changes in food production are driven by extensification (expanding agricultural area) or intensification (increasing yields per unit area).
   • How do these changes affect climate vulnerability of the agricultural system when faced with shocks (i.e. droughts, floods, extreme temperatures)?
     To answer these questions, we are a seeking a talented and driven student who will:
   • Work with geospatial data to create maps identifying areas of agricultural intensification and extensification and maps identifying areas of agricultural production overlaid with historical/projected climate threats in focal countries.
   • Integrate geospatial data with micro-household surveys collected previously by the research team and apply statistical techniques to analyze and describe agricultural production, such as agricultural investments (i.e. irrigation, loans, machinery) and crop production, fertilizer and input use by production and crop type, agricultural extensification versus intensification and deforestation, and food security measures and yield.
   • Attend monthly meetings of the larger research program and participate in an interdisciplinary research process! 
      
7. Advancing Accessible Climate Science for California: The primary goal of this project is to develop educational tools and tutorials that standardize workflows for analyzing California-specific climate data from Cal-Adapt, enabling consistent comparison of CMIP-6 climate model outputs. These resources will be showcased on the Climate DataLab website, enhancing its value as a community resource. The undergraduate student will collaborate closely with an interdisciplinary team to develop Python workflows using Jupyter Notebooks for analyzing California-specific climate data from Cal-Adapt, integrate CMIP-6 regional data to ensure consistent model comparisons, and document resources on GitHub to support reproducibility and open data science practices. They will actively collaborate with members of the Climate DataLab team to learn best practices in climate data science and open data workflows, while also creating educational materials and video walkthroughs to support interdisciplinary climate research and contribute to the Mantell Symposium in Environmental Science and Conservation Innovation. This position provides hands-on experience in climate data science, Python programming, and open data practices, while helping develop educational resources that promote DEI and interdisciplinary collaboration. Additionally, the student will enhance their leadership and communication skills through close collaboration with graduate students and climate scientists at UCSB.

The application deadline is April 2. Additional details about the projects and application are provided in the attached documents.

Apply to the BEL Program Today!

Applications should include:

• A brief statement (2-3 paragraphs) describing your interest in this project and how your experience and qualifications make you a good fit. We welcome insights into how your experiences or perspectives might shape your contribution to the BEL community.
• A resume or CV, including any relevant coursework and previous experience.

You can apply directly to the projects that interest you. Applicants must be full-time continuing UCSB undergraduate students with at least 2 quarters remaining before graduation at the time of application. The BEL program is open to students from all majors and backgrounds. Check back here for available positions, or keep an eye out on Handshake and campus listservs.

Examples of Past Fellowships

• Coastal Dune Restoration Research: Embark on field surveys at coastal dune restoration sites in southern CA to evaluate the potential of restoration to improve coastal resilience.
• Wildfire Resilience: Conveying Models to Communities through Scientific Communication: Develop an RShiny app (or equivalent tool) to communicate the results of ecohydrological models exploring how climate change and climatology influence fire likelihood, severity, and behavior.
• Satellites and data science to build climate change resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Collect and analyze climate, market, and migration data to assess the potential of center pivot irrigation to improve agricultural resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Determining Groundwater Pollution from Tobacco Product Waste: Collect groundwater samples and use lab extraction techniques to estimate the proportion of microplastics originating from tobacco product waste.
• The Observatory of Environmental Justice in Latin America (The 2035 Initiative): Organize a dataset of public health outcomes in Mexico for localities exposed to mining and oil and pilot a survey about attitudes and responses to extractive industries.
• Policy and Communication for Wildfire Resilience (The 2035 Initiative): Produce policy and communications materials the project's research outputs, implications for communities, and information to guide strategies for effective prescribed burns.
• Evaluating Rapid Response Devices for Island Biosecurity (The Nature Conservancy): Use remote cameras to test devices designed to exclude native species from rat traps on Santa Cruz Island through field experiments on the mainland and on Santa Cruz Island.
• A How-To Guide for Detecting Whales from Space (The Nature Conservancy): Create a technical user guide for using a machine learning whale detection tool to create actionable data on the presence and distribution of whales in VHR satellite imagery.
• Climate resilience planning in Santa Paula (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy - CAUSE): Conduct literature reviews and interact with community members to identify climate resilience measures to address flooding and extreme heat in Santa Paula.
• Developing policies for preserving natural resources in the Bahamas (Community and College Partners Program - C2P2): Research and develop policies to address key environmental challenges in the Bahamas, including limestone mining hazards, marine species extraction, and sustainable development.
• Methods to transform biosolids to eliminate release of PFAS and other contaminants to agricultural areas: Use lab extraction techniques to estimate contamination in soil samples.

Our program partners include: 

• The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• Audubon California
• Ocean Defenders Alliance
• Community and College Partners Program
• Rincon Consultants

Contact:

For questions from students or organizations interested in joining the program, please contact BEL Program Director, Dr. Krystal Onyekwuluje.

Questions? EMail Dr. Krystal Onyekwuluje, Program Director

Apply to the BEL Program Today!