Planetary Solutions in Clean Energy Fellow Feature: Catalina Mahe
The Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY)'s Planetary Solutions in Clean Energy Fellowship matches 10 undergraduate and graduate students with non-profit, low-profit, and governmental organizations committed to energy equity and the deployment of clean energy into low- and middle-income communities. The program provides summer research and internship opportunities to students at Yale who are committed to advancing energy equity and pursuing a career in the clean energy field. Through this fellowship, Catalina, a rising senior at Yale College studying Global Affairs with a Certificate in Advanced Spanish Language and Education Studies, interns at UndauntedK12. Undaunted is a national nonprofit organization that helps public schools be more healthy, sustainable, and resilient places of learning for students.
Who are you?
I’m a rising senior at Yale University studying Global Affairs with a Certificate in Advanced Spanish Language and Education Studies. I was born in a small town in Northern New Jersey called Ridgefield Park, and I’ve lived there all of my life. My background is in the intersection between community engagement, finance, and social responsibility – I was a Girls Who Invest Scholar and worked at Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s top hospital system, in their Investment Office the summer of my sophomore year.
I focus a lot of my free time as a student on Dwight Hall – Yale’s umbrella community service organization. Last year, I served as the Co-Community Investment Team Lead of the Dwight Hall Socially Responsible Investment Fund, where my team and I helped distribute grants to early-stage New Haven non-profits and taught financial literacy to middle school students. I also worked as their Financial Coordinator, distributing over $40,000 to 70+ student community service groups. This is definitely my favorite space on campus!
In my free time, you can find me re-watching La La Land, saving recipes in the NYTimes Cooking App, and attempting those recipes to varying degrees of success. I’ve made it a goal to learn to cook well this summer, so if you have any recipe recommendations, please send them my way! I’m also learning meditation and plant-keeping.
What initially drew you to the PSICE fellowship and your summer organization? What excited you most about working with them this summer?
I was drawn to this fellowship and specifically my organization, UndauntedK12, because of the clearly articulated values and visions surrounding both the program and the non-profit. The Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) works towards a very noble cause to create a pathway for students to find and explore careers in clean energy – since the internship program is paired with guidance from CBEY staff and a cohort of other student interns, you’re welcomed into a built-in community that can support you throughout the experience. This aspect was a big draw for me because I hadn’t worked in nor formally studied sustainability before, but I was interested in exploring the space; this program provided the perfect opportunity to get firsthand experience working within the sector with invaluable mentorship.
I was interested in interning with UndauntedK12, a non-profit organization that helps schools transition to zero carbon emissions while preparing youth to build a sustainable future, because of my own personal experience with inadequate school infrastructure. In my low-income elementary public school, we often lacked basic heating and cooling during the winter and summer, making it hard to focus and exacerbating student health issues like allergies and asthma. Undaunted is driven by a mission to modernize school buildings with upgraded energy systems that not only provide students with regulated indoor temperatures, but also help reduce utility costs and energy consumption for schools. The prospect of working at an organization that merged both sustainability and education is really exciting. They are at the forefront of this intersection, sharing information and statistics about climate change’s impact on our students that few other organizations are focusing on. I’m very lucky to have the opportunity to be part of such a creative, driven, and pioneering organization.
Can you share what your main responsibilities or projects are during your fellowship? What does a typical day look like for you?
I’m working on two major projects:
The first is a case study of Manchester Public Schools in Connecticut that raises awareness and supports implementation of Elective Pay and energy tax credits by K-12 schools. Manchester recently celebrated the construction of three net-zero public elementary schools that utilize energy systems such as ground-source heat pumps and solar panels to reduce energy consumption and their utility bills. They did so in part through the support of energy tax credits enacted in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. By sharing their process and methodology to complete this project in a case study, other school district leaders such as superintendents or facilities directors that are interested in pursuing similar modernization projects will be able to understand what implementation looks like and evaluate whether it's feasible for their own district. This will allow for Manchester’s project to be replicated in other communities by providing visible resources for support and clarity.
My second project is building out our Extreme Weather and School Closures Resource Center. Three years ago, in 2022, Undaunted began to track school closures due to extreme weather events to understand the scale of the issue in the United States. At the moment, no other public database exists for school closures caused by extreme weather, and this map is only a partial view of the issue. My main responsibilities include verifying and rounding out existing school closures from 2020-2025 to get a 5-year horizon of closures and their changes over time. Simultaneously, I am digesting this data into factsheets that are state-specific to get a sense of which extreme weather events are the most harmful in a certain state. These are relevant resources for our partners in key affected states that are looking to understand the scope of the impact of extreme weather on their local student populations.
What’s something you’ve learned so far this summer that has surprised or inspired you about your work?
So, Undaunted keeps track of school closures due to extreme weather events on a map that you can check out here. As I mentioned, one of my responsibilities for the summer is to keep this map updated with extreme weather closures from 2020-5, ensuring that it is as robust and complete as possible. Unfortunately, I have been shocked by the sheer amount of school closures due to extreme weather. This is a huge problem. For example, in California alone, over 800 schools have been impacted due to extreme weather in the 2025-2026 school year. This translates to over 50,000 hours of lost instructional time. You can see continuously updated statistics on extreme weather's impact on California schools on our live dashboard.
The effects of climate change are having a devastating effect on our students. These statistics highlight the urgency of creating more resilient school systems and working towards alleviating climate change on a national scale to prevent it from severely damaging our educational institutions. Every child deserves a safe, sustainable classroom to learn in.
Looking ahead, how do you see this experience influencing your academic or career path? Has it shifted or affirmed any of your goals?
Yes, this experience has confirmed that I'm interested in the nonprofit and social impact sector, specifically with a lens towards sustainability and education. I'm excited to see where my future career path leads!