Evan Wood was on a walk with his brother and one-year-old daughter when he got the news.
“I was really shocked and excited that I was actually going to get this opportunity,” he recalls. “It was a great moment to share with them.”
On that walk, Wood received an email that he was selected as the recipient of the 2023 Hudnut Scholarship in Public Leadership, one of dozens of scholarships available through the O’Neill School in Indianapolis. The Hudnut Scholarship is open to undergraduates majoring in public affairs, with preference given to those in policy studies, civic leadership, and sustainable management and policy. The amount given ranges from $1,000 to $2,000 for one academic year.
But this scholarship comes with more than a financial reward—it also includes a semester of invaluable hands-on learning through an internship with the city of Indianapolis. Recipients work with city officials to find a program that fits their interests and other obligations. As a Sustainable Management and Policy major, Wood wanted to see what it was like to work on the public side of the sustainability field.
“It was very interesting to see how they work on a day-to-day basis, and the different ways they try to affect change,” he says.
As an intern, Wood worked on several projects for the city, including the federally funded Justice40 initiative in neighborhoods around Indianapolis, various climate pollution reduction grants, the city’s greenhouse gas inventory, as well as its Thriving Buildings initiative.
“For Thriving Buildings, I did benchmarking for the city, tracking utility data for certain municipal buildings,” he says. “I also took what I learned about the EPA’s greenhouse gas calculator during one of my O’Neill classes and then used it on the job in the city’s greenhouse gas inventory. It gave me a new appreciation for how what we learn in class can be applied in the working world.”
He says the many projects he worked on helped give him the real-world experience he needed to know whether sustainability was a viable career option for him—a critical part of completing any internship.
“We spend all this time selecting our major, but we don’t really know if we’re going to enjoy the job until we get into it,” he says. “You want to have experience and know what to expect when you’re going into your job. But more than anything, you want to know if you’ll enjoy what you’ll be doing, that it’s something you want to do and will make you feel like you’re making an impact.”
He says having now worked in sustainability, he feels even more confident that he’s made the right decision about pursuing it as a career. He’s also seen the many different directions in which he could take that career.
“Because of this experience, I now have a better idea of what I would like to do in the future—whether public or private—so I can narrow down my career path,” he explains. “It made me more prepared to hit the ground running when I get that first job.”
Visit this link to learn more about the Hudnut Scholarship or the many other scholarships available to O’Neill students. Most scholarship applications for the upcoming academic year remain open until March 1. To apply, students may fill out one general application with the university. However, some scholarships—like the Hudnut Scholarship—require additional information to be uploaded to the form.
