The mission of Green Corps is to train organizers, provide field support for today’s critical environmental campaigns, and graduate activists who possess the skills, temperament and commitment to fight and win tomorrow’s environmental battles.

Why Did They Start?

Following Earth Day 1990, a wave of environmentally-minded college graduates left academia looking for a way to put their values to work. As is true today, there was no shortage of graduates who were passionate and ready to contribute to the environmental movement, but were faced with a critical challenge: How do you find a position with one of these environmental organizations with minimal experience?

In 1992, U.S. PIRG launched Green Corps as a field school for environmental organizers. This program gave participants a solid academic grounding in their field of choice, provided concrete campaign experience with leading environmental and social change organizations, and even paid participants to enable them to engage full-time in their chosen work.

Where Are They Now?

Fast forward more than two decades: Green Corps has trained and graduated more than 350 organizers who are putting their skills to work with Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Environment America, Food & Water Watch, Rainforest Action Network and other groups on issues ranging from saving their national parks to protecting the Arctic, from solving global warming to reforming their food system.