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ESIIL STARS

Building capacity with undergraduate students and faculty to teach and learn technical environmental data skills

ESIIL Stars

The ESIIL Stars Program, funded by NSF, is an annual program that builds environmental data science skills and trains the next generation of data-capable workers. Inspired by Earth Lab's Earth Data Science Corps, this 5-month internship program includes a combination of online data skills training for students and faculty, career-focused webinars, an open textbook that introduces novel analytics for environmental data, and project-based learning. Faculty training builds capacity to teach environmental data science at partner institutions.

Why?

While the demand for earth data science skills in the workforce is exploding, the availability of programs that teach these in demand skills is limited. Specifically, smaller schools often lack the capacity to teach technical skills due to limited resources, faculty expertise and challenges associated with adding new curriculum. This lack of capacity in turn yields fewer skilled workers  in the technology sector.

How?

Participants are trained through a paid internship that includes online workshops for students and faculty and project based learning where participants design their own research projects. Modeled after Earth Lab’s Earth Analytics Data Science Bootcamp course, students and faculty learn the core data science skills necessary for careers in earth data science, including Python programming, Git/GitHub for version control and collaboration, and CyVerse for working reproducibly in the cloud. Faculty are then able to teach these skills to the broader population of students at their schools.

Who?

The ESIIL Stars internship is a paid, cohort-based research and workforce development program that supports faculty–student teams in engaging with real-world environmental data science projects. Faculty apply to the program and recruit a small team of 3–4 students, forming a mentoring group that works together throughout the internship. 

This program is aimed at undergraduate students who are new to data science and interested in applying it to earth and environmental science. It is offered to participants at each partner school of ESIIL, providing experience to students with limited access to earth data science educational resources, laying a solid foundation for future earth data science work. Students are not expected to have any previous programming experience before beginning the Stars program and undergraduate students in all majors and class levels are eligible.

Throughout the program there are peer and professional career development webinars and workshops on topics such as scientific communication, working in environmental data science, and building a professional online presence. All project educational materials are shared on Earth Lab’s open education portal.

Students are awarded a $4,500 stipend for the program, and additional funding for travel and lodging for the in-person training in Boulder, Colorado.

Congratulations to the 2026 ESIIL Stars Interns!

We are excited to showcase the projects from our partnering institutions led by student interns. Click the links below to view their presentations: 

A special thanks to Shikhar Pandey and Brian Yandell for their support and our ESIIL Stars Faculty and Advanced Interns:

  • Oglala Lakota College: Cami Griffith, Dana Gehring, and Elisha Yellow Thunder (Faculty); Summer Dupree (Advance Intern)
  • Colorado State University: Mohammad Shahriar Saif, Sandra Duran Mancipe (Faculty)
  • Fort Valley State University: Aftab Siddique, Chunhua Mahon (Faculty)
  • Agnes Scott College: Jennifer Kovacs (Faculty)
  • San Carlos Apache College: Mark Clytus (Faculty)
  • Haskell Indian Nations University: Stephanie Willis and Alex Williams (Faculty); Jesse Resendiz (Advanced Intern)
  • Metropolitan State University of Denver: Andong Ma (Faculty); Kevin Morales (Advanced Intern)

Past Projects

2025

2024

  • United Tribes Technical College: Marshall Smith, Abraham Weasel, Skylar Albers, Ebony Schultz, Tanner Veo, Kianna Stroh, Elisha Yellow Thunder, Jessica Logan, Emily Biggane
  • Metropolitan State University of Denver: Tesia Mancosky, Paw Moo, Rachel Sadler, Riley Sundberg, Rosie Patrick, Meghan Smedes, Sylvia Brady, David Parr
  • Oglala Lakota College: Summer Afraid of Hawk, Dara Eaglestaff, Angelina Wade, Summer Dupree, Eva Wedell, Elisha Yellow Thunder, Camille Griffith, Dana Gehring

Partners

This work represents a partnership between Oglala Lakota College (OLC), Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU), United Tribes Technical College (UTTC), Tohono O'odham Community College (TOCC), San Carlos Apache College (SCAC), Haskell Indian Nations University (Haskell), and The Environmental Data Science Innovation and Inclusion Lab (ESIIL). ESIIL is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and is a part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), a partnership of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). We are also affiliated with Earth Lab.

Become an ESIIL Stars Partner

Stars Faculty Application

Are you a faculty member at a college or university that has a need for developing capacity to teach and learn Environmental Data Science? If so, then ESIIL Stars might be the right program for you and your students. 

Teachers play an active role by holding regular team meetings, co-developing project ideas with their students, and participating fully in all required trainings. Both students and faculty receive participation stipends, and all program-related travel expenses are covered, lowering financial barriers to engagement and sustained collaboration.

If you are interested in applying for this unique, NSF-funded opportunity, please take a few minutes to fill out the application below.

Please stay tuned - applications open February 2027.