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: Applications for Summer 2027 will open in December of 2026.
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
Please find our two-pager here for more information.
2026 Summer Fellowship Recipients
Rohan Agrawal (MBA '27) - Esusu
This summer, Rohan supported the design of a zero-interest, prefunded credit-building card for thin-file renters at Esusu, advancing the company's mission to expand financial inclusion and housing stability.
Akiera Charles (MBA '27) - Fair Labor Association
Akiera served as an MBA Summer Fellow at the Fair Labor Association, developing a Responsible Recruitment Knowledge & Action Hub to help brands and suppliers translate responsible sourcing commitments into practical action across global supply chains.
Derek Saul (MBA '27) - Hormel
This summer at Hormel Foods, Derek worked benchmarking industry practices and shaping the strategy, messaging, and roadmap behind the company's Good Feeds Us All sustainability platform.
Leah Sorkin (MBA/MPA '28) - Just Salad
Leah worked on Just Salad's Supply Chain and Sustainability team, driving strategy for the company's reusable bowl program while supporting broader efforts on supply chain analysis and greenhouse gas accounting.
Rachel Gindi (MBA '27) - Tory Burch
Rachel joined Tory Burch's Sustainability team to advance circularity through returns process improvements, a corporate waste diversion system, and a strategic evaluation of the resale market.
Renata Lara Arizpe (MBA '27) - Nestlé Health Science
Renata worked with Nestlé Health Science, building a commercial business case for sustainability by researching consumer priorities and translating the company's initiatives for stakeholders across the value chain.
Summer 2025 Fellowship Recipients
Het interned at Esusu on the Product and Strategy team, where he developed a strategic roadmap and go-to-market plan to expand financial access by integrating verified rent payment data into credit and mortgage systems, collaborating with internal teams and external partners like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Renee Bogda worked on in-office recycling improvements, flight emissions reduction strategy, and B-Corp recertification research, while leading innovative initiatives to boost sustainability, waste reduction, and community impact.
Eliana contributed to advancing the PayPal’s human rights program by conducting industry benchmarking, developing policies and training, and building cross-functional consensus to prepare for upcoming regulations.
During his summer with Streetlife, David streamlined investment evaluation workflows, developed AI tools and scoring frameworks, conducted sector research, and supported due diligence to rigorously assess early-stage urban sustainability startups’ climate impact.
Sushmitha interned on the Supply Chain Innovation team at the Fair Labor Association, creating tools and frameworks to embed sustainability in supply chains—such as a KPI framework, improved data collection tools, and documentation—while collaborating with diverse stakeholders to drive scalable and realistic solutions.
Rylee interned with the Fair Labor Association’s Social Compliance team, drafting a comprehensive Gender Equity Training Manual, revising principles to embed a gender lens in grievance and monitoring processes, and translating global human rights frameworks into practical tools to advance gender equity and workers’ rights in global supply chains.
At Tory Bruch Eliza researched and shaped circularity strategies, partnered across the business to advance post-sale circular initiatives, and presented recommendations to global leadership, integrating sustainability with business value in the dynamic retail sector.
Mykhailo analyzed international treaties and directives, distilled complex policy changes into actionable briefs, and supported high-level advocacy to shape business-friendly positions in fast-paced global negotiations at forums like the UN and EU.
Summer 2024 Fellowship Recipients
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Summer 2023 Fellowship Recipients
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Summer 2022 Fellowship Recipients
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.
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.
Abbey will support New Balance on their fair compensation work and supply chain responsible leadership program.
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.
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.
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
Summer 2021 Fellowship Recipients
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.
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.
Summer 2020 Fellowship Recipients
Summer 2019 Fellowship Recipients
Summer 2018 Fellowship Recipients
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.