Leadership & Strategy
Building & recruiting your team | Scaling your venture | Establishing your personal brand | The power of a pitch | Future pathways
CliMit Fellowship
The CliMit Fellowship is a semester-long, selective program for freshmen and sophomore students at Rutgers University. The CliMit Fellowship is a hybrid incubation/mentorship program that seeks to serve as a launchpad for innovative projects, solutions, and startups in the field of climate technology.
CliMit Fellowship
Designed to simulate a real-world accelerator program, CliMit pairs students randomly to create core teams that will work to develop a technology-based solution against one aspect of the climate crisis, all over the course of one semester.
CliMit Core Pillars
The four pillars of CliMit's Fellowship emulate the four departments that the CliMit startup featured. These core four areas are essential for the development and cultivation of an idea from conception to execution.
Research & Purpose
Defining your problem | Envisioning your impact | Effective task delegation | Data collection & processing | Resources
Technology & Development
Which technology will you use? | Designing measurable solutions | Backend basics | UX/UI and frontend | MVP/prototype development
Marketing & Branding
Selecting a brand name | Creating a logo | Branding your mission | Mastering social media | Webpage development
CliMit Goals
The goal of the CliMit Fellowship is not necessarily to produce startups right away— but rather to create a strong foundation for teams of students to get to know each other, network, and build relationships that can fuel future ideas and projects over the course of their Rutgers journeys.
We will provide a framework for students that can be further built upon through a collaborative effort of other organizations and programs.
Furthermore, CliMit is solely focused on ventures in the climate change/sustainability/environmental sectors, with a heavy emphasis on using technology to address these issues.
Our History
CliMit, a former Rutgers-based climate tech startup, was founded in 2021 by Michael Panchery and Katie Sidebotham with the intention of developing a tool that could assist municipalities in understanding their risk of climate-induced disasters, as well as how to go about effectively mitigating that risk.
Over the course of its multiple-semester history, it became the largest startup at Rutgers with nearly 50 student workers across four departments and over 150 applicants. The startup was jointly produced in the Innovation, Design, & Entrepreneurship Academy and the Honors College Innovation Lab.
CliMit experienced early success with a trip to the quarterfinals of the TCU Neely Values & Ventures Competition, acceptance into the Clinton Global Initiative, interest from NOAA, and the opportunity to represent Rutgers at the Propelify Innovation Festival.
Fellowship Application