Internship Spotlight: Katya Wendt ’25, Global Resilience Partnership

Internship: Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Adaption Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA), remote from Hamden, CT
Hometown: Rochester, MN
Pronouns: she/her/hers
The SOM class you’re using on the job: Sourcing and Managing Funds, Competitor, Customer, Innovator, Basics of Accounting
Go-to work lunch: Leftovers from dinner the night before. Usually something made with the vegetables from my CSA from a local farm.
After-work routine: I pick my daughter up from daycare and usually head to the pool or the park until dinner!
Favorite thing about Hamden: Easy access to Sleeping Giant State Park via the Farmington Canal Trail!

This summer, I’m interning with the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), an international consortium of over 80 organizations dedicated to advancing climate resilience by scaling innovation, sharing knowledge, and influencing policy. The internship program was created by SOM alum Clint Bartlett ’17, who was a senior advisor to the GRP and is now an investment and scaling consultant to the UNDP AFCIA program.

Through the GRP, I am supporting three organizations in the Global South that have received funding through UNDP AFCIA. Specifically, I am developing a financial strategy for an açaí agroforestry project in Brazil; a business plan for rural development through beekeeping in South Africa; and a marketing strategy for a climate-smart agriculture project in Jamaica with youth skills training. I have the unique opportunity to work directly with the organizations in a consulting role to help them succeed and grow.

This internship appealed to me as an opportunity to make a positive difference and get first-hand experience in support of my professional goals. I am passionate about regenerative agriculture and sustainability but have limited professional experience in the space, so I was delighted to apply my business skills to this important work while also learning directly from those developing climate adaptation and resilience solutions on the ground. Already, I have learned a lot about the challenges faced by NGOs working on climate issues—including where the skills I gained at SOM and in my previous career are helpful, and what gaps in my knowledge still remain.

Through this internship, I also hoped to explore work in the nonprofit sector. Before coming to SOM, I worked in the private sector, and my previous internship was with the federal government, so this internship has given me the opportunity to explore a new field and better understand the differences between them. I am excited to take more courses in the second year of my MBA—such as Strategic Management of Nonprofit Organizations and Impact Measurement & Financial Reporting in the Social Sector—that will help me reflect on what I have learned and prepare me for similar challenges in the future.

While my work is fully remote, I have had many opportunities to build connections with the cohort of fifteen interns from Yale and Oxford University. We meet weekly to discuss our projects and share insights, and the five interns from SOM and Yale School of the Environment meet regularly to discuss our projects, share learnings and best practices, and build community. As the manager of the internship, Clint has organized regular guest speaker sessions on topics of importance to our projects, such as carbon credits and organizational structuring.

In this internship, I have worked with several organizations simultaneously, facing the reality of being a consultant with multiple projects and stakeholders. Each project has different priorities, timelines, and expectations, requiring me to flex my time management, stakeholder management, and organization skills. In return, I have had the unique opportunity to develop a breadth of skills while learning from dozens of talented individuals around the world!