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Hubbard Fellowship – Applications Due September 27, 2026

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Are you a recent college graduate looking for a career in conservation? Or will you be a recent college graduate by December? Would you like a year-long position in which you can gain a ton of different experiences without having to change jobs/locations every few months?

The Hubbard Fellowship with The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska is a great way to complement your college education with real life experience – and lots of it. Many of our past fellows have used that experience to jump right into a career position after they leave us. Others found the fellowship helped them decide what to focus on in graduate school.

2026 Hubbard Fellows – Leah Zuschlag (left) and Sarah Kennings (right)

Fellows spend about half their time doing land stewardship work in prairies and wetlands, including prescribed fire, invasive species control, cattle and bison grazing management, and much more. They learn how to operate tractors, skid steers, UTVs, chainsaws, and the other equipment used to manage land.

Sarah Kennings mowing research plot boundaries

Beyond land stewardship, though, fellows are looped into just about everything The Nature Conservancy does in Nebraska, including science, outreach, fundraising, supervising volunteers, and strategic planning. They also attend several professional conferences, both in Nebraska and beyond.

Fellows develop an independent project as well, which fills about 10% of their time. Topics for projects can include just about anything, including research, art, storytelling, and much more – as long as it allows fellows to explore something they want to learn more about and provides the Conservancy with a tangible benefit.

Small mammal research is one of many experiences the fellows get during their year.

Hubbard fellows are provided with housing and work vehicle, a flexible schedule, a supportive environment, and full employment benefits, including health insurance, matching retirement contributions, and paid time off.

Interested? See the details of the position here and then click here to apply.

Hiring Now! The 2026 Hubbard Fellowship with The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska

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It’s time! We are now accepting applications for our 13th class of Hubbard Fellows. Please forward this to anyone you know who might be interested. I supervise our fellows each year, and can’t wait to meet the next two.

The Hubbard Fellowship was built to help people bridge the gap between what you learn in college and the skills and proficiency needed to start a career. After graduation, many (most?) aspiring conservationists spend several years in seasonal positions, trying to gain enough experience to qualify for career positions. Because those seasonal jobs tend to be fairly narrow in scope and short in duration, it can take a while to build a diverse resume.

2025 Hubbard Fellow Noelle Schumann ignites a prescribed fire under the watchful eye of a mentor.

Hubbard Fellows are involved in nearly everything The Nature Conservancy does in Nebraska over the course of their 12-month fellowship. They spend a lot of time doing land stewardship – getting the training they need along the way – but also attend board meetings, engage in strategic discussions, and help with fundraising and marketing work. Fellows get to meet and work with researchers, lead groups of volunteers, and talk about conservation to the public.

In addition, each Fellow can design their own independent project, which allows them to dive more deeply into a topic of their interest. As long as it provides some kind of tangible benefit to The Nature Conservancy, projects can look like just about anything. Fellows have conducted field research, created art, developed recommendations for conservation strategies, designed outreach programs and materials, and much more.

Our other 2025 Hubbard Fellow, Kojo Baidoo, gets an up close look at bison at The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve.

By the end of their year with The Nature Conservancy, fellows tend to have a stronger sense of what they want to aim for in their career. Sometimes, that leads them into graduate school, ready to focus on their chosen topic, and with an eye toward what they want after they complete their next degree. Other times, it sets them up for a successful job application in land stewardship, environmental education, conservation fundraising, or other fields.

If all of this sounds like something that applies to you, please apply! We get applicants with both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The level of your degree doesn’t matter nearly as much as your enthusiasm and potential. We want to help build the next generation of conservation leaders (including all forms of “leadership”) so tell us why this fellowship would be helpful to you and why you’re excited about the opportunity.

You can read much more about the Hubbard Fellowship here and in this brochure. Applications are due September 28, 2025 and our two new fellows will start on February 2, 2026.