Applicants must be high school students living and attending school in the United States, U.S. territories, or tribal nations for the duration of the fellowship program (from fall 2024 to spring 2025) to be eligible to apply. Students must also be at least 13 years old when they submit the application (by June 10, 2024).

If you are not a high school student and at least 13 years old, you are unfortunately not eligible.

Please carefully read through the eligibility page for more details.

Unfortunately, no, recent high school graduates are not eligible to apply. You must be a high school student for the duration of the fellowship program (from fall 2024 to spring 2025) to be eligible to apply. Check out the student opportunities database to learn about other ways to engage with NOAA in college and beyond.

No leadership experience is required. We are looking for students that are passionate about protecting the environment, ocean, Great Lakes, and/or coasts, and that are committed to this year-long program.

No! We are searching for changemakers with a wide variety of interests related to the ocean and environment, including policy, advocacy, education, STEM, art, writing, and more! All approaches to changemaking are valuable. We want students who want to make a difference for their communities.

We will email all applicants with a decision by July 1. Please be sure to check the email address that you listed on your application form regularly, since this will be how we let you know about whether you were selected as a fellow.

The fellowship application requires one letter of recommendation from an adult (not your parent or legal guardian) who can speak to your interest in and commitment to environment-related issues, as well as your dependability. This letter can come from your teacher, or you can ask someone else to write you the recommendation. Consider a coach, volunteer coordinator, job supervisor, or someone else who knows you well.

No transcripts are required for the application.

Recommenders must upload their letter via this Google Form offsite link by the application deadline (June 10, 2024 at 11:59pm Eastern time) for applications to be considered complete. If the recommender has problems submitting via the Google Form, they can download a Word document version of the form and submit it via email to young.changemakers@noaa.gov.

It is up to the applicant to ask for the letter of recommendation, share the letter submission link offsite link and/or the Word document version of the form, and follow up with their recommender to ensure it is submitted on time. Applications without a corresponding letter of recommendation will not be reviewed.

The program will begin with an in-person kick-off summit in Washington, D.C., on July 23-27, 2024. The remainder of the year will be held virtually, with all activities coming to an end on June 30, 2024.

The program will have a kick-off summit in Washington, D.C., on July 23-27, 2024. All fellows are required to attend this retreat with an accompanying parent / legal guardian, and NOAA will cover all costs associated with travel, hotels, food, etc., for both the fellow and the accompanying adult guardian. The rest of the required fellowship activities will take place virtually from August 2024 to June 2025. Additional optional in-person opportunities may arise, depending on availability of resources and interest of the fellows.

No mandatory fellowship activities will occur during regular school hours. The kick-off summit will take place during the summer, and we will schedule virtual meetings for after school hours, accommodating participants across different time zones.

Each fellow will have up to $750 to design and carry out a project of their choice. You can work on just about any project that relates to the environment or the ocean. Project topics could include marine debris, climate justice, sustainable fisheries, marine protected areas, resilience against natural disasters, and so much more. NOAA experts work on a wide variety of subjects related to weather, climate, natural resources, and the ocean and will be available to help you design and execute your project.

You can also take a variety of different approaches to tackling these topics. You can create a communication or education campaign to increase awareness on the topic of your choice. You could push for systemic change in your local community. You could work with local businesses to improve their sustainability practices. The sky is the limit!

Students will receive a stipend of $800 for their participation, as well as up to $750 of funding for an action project. Course credit and volunteer hours are not available from the fellowship. 

We would love to stay in touch with fellows after the program ends, if they are interested, so that we can share additional resources and opportunities as the fellows continue in their schooling and careers. We’ll work with our fellows to decide the best method for staying in contact. After all, this is a collaborative partnership!

Climate change, sea level rise, and a myriad of other global environmental challenges plague our blue planet, with today’s young people bearing a burden disproportionate to their contributions to these problems. As a result, climate anxiety and concerns about the future of our planet are on the rise, especially amongst young people. Youth engagement in environmental action has been shown to mitigate climate anxiety and also mitigate environmental harms. Positive impacts are maximized when young people work collectively and are given authentic decision-making power. NOAA is launching this program to increase youth voice within our own agency, in line with feedback that the agency has received from multiple youth organizations. Youth engagement is a high priority of NOAA leadership, and NOAA recognizes that by extending this opportunity to high school students, both the agency and the young participants will benefit.

eeBLUE is the name of the partnership between NOAA's Office of Education and the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) offsite link. Aimed at furthering environmental and science literacy to build more resilient communities nationwide, the eeBLUE partnership operates several programs with substantial involvement from both NOAA and NAAEE. Because the fellowship is one of those programs, changemakers get to learn from and have exposure to staff at both organizations — the best of both worlds!

Read more about the eeBLUE partnership here offsite link.