The Fall 2025 TESI Environmental Leaders Fellowship brings together students from diverse majors and backgrounds and provides them with the knowledge, skills, confidence, and network to advocate for the planet as they take on leadership roles in their respective careers.
Funded with support from the National Academies, this Fellowship offers UF undergraduates the opportunity to gain experience in environmental research, education & outreach, and civic engagement. Our Fall 2025 cohort attends seminars featuring environmental experts, takes part in three days of immersive field experiences, networks with peers, and engages with the public through TESI outreach events.
Fall 2025 Fellows
Benefits of the program
Fellows will leave the program with the following:
- Three days of field experiences throughout August and October.
- Enhanced understanding of environmental issues.
- A broad skill set in different approaches to tackling environmental issues.
- Professional and leadership skills focused on research, education, and civic engagement. Fellowship experiences will culminate in a final project focused on the experiences of the fellows in Florida ecosystems.
- A network of colleagues they can connect to as they emerge as leaders in their respective fields.
- Stipend of $1,200.
Program components
- Seminars: These discussions feature environmental professionals from a variety of fields.
- Cohort meetings: Fellows attend biweekly cohort meetings to network with one another and with professionals in the community.
- Outreach: Fellows each help out on an outreach project during the fall semester, working with members of the TESI team to educate the public on environmental issues.
- Field experiences: Fellows gain hands-on research experience and have opportunities to engage and connect with professionals, researchers, and other stakeholders tackling environmental issues from various perspectives.
- Final StoryMap project: Fellows each work on a portion of a collective StoryMap reflecting on aspects of life in Florida, with its diversity of ecosystems.
Program partnership
The fall 2025 cohort is partnered with Dr. Matt Hallett, Assistant Research Professor in the UF Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department. Dr. Hallett can provide the fellows with an opportunity to observe field research on camera traps, which allows for both field experience and a perspective on connection to the environment through the use of technology to observe otherwise rarely seen wildlife.
Fellowship Organizers
Sadie Mills
Program Coordinator and Educator, UF Thompson Earth Systems Institute
Email: smills@floridamuseum.ufl.edu
Lexi Bolger
Graduate Student Coordinator, ELF Cohort II
Email: abolger@ufl.edu
Elle Henson
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Undergraduate, ELF Program Assistant
Email: ellehenson@ufl.edu
ELF Blog
TESI Environmental Leaders Fellowship Trip to the Jacksonville Zoo
On October 11, 2025, the ELF fellows took a field trip to the Jacksonville Zoo with Dr. Matt Hallett to learn about how…
TESI Environmental Leaders Orientation and August Field Experiences
On August 18-20th, 2025, the new TESI Environmental Leaders Fellows started the semester with an orientation at Dickinson Hall, including…
Riley Gallen Reflects on Her Time as an Environmental Leaders Fellow
As an environmental engineering major at the University of Florida, I’ve always looked for ways to get more involved in…
Interested in supporting this program?
This program has been made possible by the generous support of private foundations as well as campus and community partners. If you are interested in supporting the next cohort of our TESI Environmental Leaders Fellowship, please email Sadie Mills at smills@floridamuseum.ufl.edu.