LeHigh Scholar wins Prestigious Ubben Fellowship

LeHigh University Posse Scholar Ciaran Buitrago was selected as a 2023 Jeff Ubben Posse Fellow. The fellowship, which was created to honor the legacy of former Posse Board chair Jeff Ubben, pairs a rising junior with a CEO in their major field for an exclusive summer internship experience. The Fellowship also includes an unrestricted $10,000 stipend. Ciaran is the Bay Area’s first Scholar to win the award.

Ciaran, a rising junior double majoring in business and computer science, spent his summer interning at the World Wildlife Fund, the largest nature conservation nonprofit in the world. With mentorship from CEO Carter Roberts, Ciaran joined the WWF global science team, which supports all of the organizations initiatives with technology and database services that track conservations projects around the world.

The World Wildlife Fund, Ciaran says, “is exactly the place I hoped I’d end up. It has given me the opportunity to learn, grow, and meaningfully contribute to climate conservation.”

Ciaran’s goal is simple: to save the planet.

“When it comes to confronting climate change it can feel really daunting. But we are making progress toward our climate goals,” says Ciaran. “We just need more people of my generation joining the fight.”

Ciaran has future hopes to travel in the Amazon, get involved in public policy, pursue a graduate degree in computer science, and utilize artificial intelligence for climate conservation.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without Posse. The Ubben Fellowship is what brought me to D.C. and working at WWF with Carter Roberts is the perfect combination of my interests: business, computer science and climate justice,” says Ciaran. “I feel so grateful to be surrounded by likeminded, bright, and determined individuals.”