A nonprofit that
actually builds things.
Brooklyn Level Up is rooted in The Flats — East Flatbush, Flatbush, and Flatlands. Our work spans climate resilience, technology access, and civic power — with the community that lives here, not for them.
Brooklyn Level Up (BKLVLUP) is a community-powered environmental justice nonprofit rooted in The Flats. We organize at the intersection of climate resilience, technology access, and civic power — with and for the community that lives here.
Our work is active and ongoing. Stormwater infrastructure, energy access, community land trust advocacy, civic participation, neighborhood resilience. The IBX Coalition, Rain Activated, Powering the Block — that's all us. If those names don't mean anything to you yet, they will by the end of Week 1.
EcoPower Internship '26 is the youth infrastructure arm of that work — a paid summer internship program for Brooklyn high schoolers ages 14–19 that connects a cohort of eight operators directly into what we're already building across The Flats. Eight operators. Four tracks. Nine weeks. Real work, real pay, real deliverables that enter the community.
The graduate intern is the connective tissue between the staff team and the cohort — a practitioner in training who mentors, co-facilitates, and builds alongside us. This role is new in 2026. You'll help define what it looks like from the inside. That's not a side benefit — it's part of the job.
Not a junior.
A practitioner.
This is not a support role dressed up as an internship. You carry real responsibility from day one.
Before you apply,
check the fit.
Five questions. Honest answers only. We won't see this — it just helps you decide whether to keep reading or save your energy for a year that's a better match.
- 01I'm currently in (or recently finished) a graduate program.
- 02I have facilitation, teaching, or mentorship reps — formal or informal.
- 03I'm comfortable when plans shift and I have to read the room.
- 04I want to build alongside community, not arrive with the answers.
- 05I can commit Mon–Thu in person in Brooklyn from June 22 to Sept 3, 2026.
Real work.
Real responsibility.
Four areas of ownership. All of them matter. None of them are optional.
- Co-facilitate the Week 1 Design Thinking Workshop alongside the program lead and co-lead
- Lead or co-lead at least one track-specific workshop or skill session per week
- Hold weekly drop-in office hours (1 hour) for each of your two assigned tracks' operators
- Conduct biweekly 1:1 check-ins with operators across both tracks — goal check, vibe check, growth check — and surface anything that needs team attention
- Support presentation coaching in Weeks 8–9 as operators prepare for the Community Showcase
- Assist with daily async standup monitoring — flag missed check-ins or blockers to the team
- Contribute to weekly reflection synthesis — help identify patterns for the zine and inform mid-cohort adjustments
- Support logistics for at least one field trip or community event (site visits, clinic days, community activations, or partner events)
- Assist the team with starter kit distribution and Day 1 onboarding logistics
- Own a meaningful contribution to each of your two assigned tracks' capstone arcs — not as supervisor, but as co-builder
- Help operators connect their work to the active programs BKLVLUP runs across East Flatbush, Flatbush, and Flatlands — you'll learn what those are in Week 1 and build from there
- Contribute at least one original piece to the EcoPower '26 zine
- Maintain a running log of cohort observations — not evaluations — for the team's mid-cohort review
- Support community-facing fieldwork — help design canvassing or data collection strategy and debrief findings with operators
- Support post-program documentation: photos, field notes, and data that feeds into the impact report delivered to funders in September
Nothing added
without your buy-in.
BKLVLUP is an active nonprofit with ongoing grant-funded programs and community commitments. Sometimes the summer brings something unexpected — a grant deliverable, a partner ask, a program need that intersects with your skills and tracks.
When that happens, we talk first. Any additional responsibilities outside the scope of this description get discussed, agreed on, and defined with you before any work starts. No surprises. No scope creep without consent. Your time is paid. We respect it.
You oversee two.
You're assigned a primary and a secondary track. You co-facilitate, run weekly office hours, and mentor operators in both. Tell us in your application where you'd land — and give us a real answer, not the one that sounds most impressive.
Required + preferred.
We care more about what you've done than where you studied. A degree from somewhere impressive doesn't mean much if you've never held a room of teenagers who don't want to be there.
- Currently enrolled in or recently completed a graduate program — urban planning, environmental science, education, social work, public policy, community development, media/communications, design, or technology
- Experience working with or for communities of color, particularly Black and Caribbean communities in Brooklyn or similar urban contexts
- Demonstrated facilitation, teaching, or mentorship experience — formal or informal (workshops, tutoring, coaching, organizing, classroom teaching)
- Comfort with ambiguity — things shift, good facilitators read the room and move accordingly
- Strong written and verbal communication — you'll hold operators when they're stuck, frustrated, or excited
- Genuine alignment with BKLVLUP's values: environmental justice, anti-displacement, civic participation, and the belief that people closest to the problem are closest to the solution
- Background in one or more of our four tracks: environmental science and data, civic tech and AI, media and storytelling, or community organizing and civic advocacy
- Experience with design thinking, human-centered design, or community-engaged research methodologies
- Familiarity with tools the team uses: Canva, Google Workspace, Slack, GIS basics, or AI tools
- Spanish or Haitian Creole language skills
- Existing connection to East Flatbush, Flatbush, Flatlands, or broader Central Brooklyn
This is a
compact.
Six things. All of them real. We don't do honorary anything.
You know if
this is you.
Practitioner.
Not supervisor.
The graduate intern reports to the program lead and works closely with the program co-lead on brand, day-to-day management, and visual production — and with the civic track lead on community facilitation and cohort check-in infrastructure. The team is small. Everyone carries weight.
You are a practitioner on this team — not a supervisor of the high school operators, but a trusted mentor and co-builder. Your authority with the cohort comes from relationship, not title. The distinction matters. Understand it early or you'll struggle with the role.
Because this role is new in 2026, you help define what it becomes. We'll document what worked, what didn't, and what the graduate intern role should look like next year. That documentation is part of the job — not an afterthought.
Mondays through
Thursdays. Fridays off.
Always. We don't negotiate this. Rest is how you show up well the rest of the week.
Common questions.
If your question isn't here, email us. We answer everything.
Ready to apply?
We select two graduate interns for the summer. That's it. Apply anyway — we read everything.