Interns & Fellows

Keystone is chosen by countless students and graduates as a starting point for their careers in community development, local governance, ecology, conservation and other areas of social work. With experts, tribal community members and youth working on 30+ projects ongoing at any given point across sectors, along with the stunning Nilgiris landscape open for exploration as your new home, our campus in Kotagiri is sure to offer an enriching experience.

We welcome interns throughout the year. For enquiries on opportunities, please send us your resume, portfolio (if any) and a cover letter expressing your area of interest and potential for contribution at kf(at)keystone-foundation.org.

Keystone also invites students and recent graduates from our partner institutes across the world to join us as Fellows and contribute to our work. Many of our young, dynamic Fellows stay as long as two years, learning about the Nilgiris, working with tribal communities and often starting their own projects.

Please note: our Community Well-being and Biodiversity programmes are currently not looking for interns until further notice.

Meet our current Fellows!

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Anokha Venugopal

Oberlin Shansi Fellow, U.S.A.
Communications at Keystone Foundation

Having graduated from Oberlin College with an Environmental Studies major and French minor, Anokha now coordinates Communications and Media at Keystone. During her two years in Kotagiri, Anokha hopes to explore and document local conservation systems and climate mitigation efforts skills in photography and videography/visual media, to highlight communities and individuals.

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Jomol Jose

Urban Fellow, IIHS
Community Wellbeing at Keystone

Jomol is a fellow from the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, and has a diploma in journalism. She is interning with Keystone's Community Wellbeing team during April-May 2023. Based in our field centre in Wayanad, she is documenting stories of our onground work through photography and writing.

Isabel Tadmiri

Isabel Tadmiri

Oberlin Shansi Fellow, U.S.A.
Keystone Foundation & Last Forest

With an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and minors in Politics and Environmental Studies at Oberlin, Isabel joined Last Forest and Keystone in October 2022 as a communications intern. She is excited to learn more about how we can honour traditional knowledge bases to work towards environmental and public health justice with Adivasis and Keystone while in the Nilgiris.

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Roshni R. Krishnan

Urban Fellow, IIHS
Community Well-being at Keystone

Roshni is a fellow from the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, who has an educational background in geography. She is interning with Keystone's Community Wellbeing team during April-May 2023. She is keenly interested in transitions in indigenous food systems in the context of urban expansion and climate change.

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Emelie Svensson

Swallows Fellow, Sweden
Climate Change at Keystone

Emelie has a Bachelor’s degree in Human Rights Studies from Lund University. She began her internship with Keystone Foundation’s Climate Change programme in February 2023 and will stay until June 2023. Emelie is looking forward to learning more about practical environmental work in the context of the Nilgiris and about the many indigenous groups that live and coexist in the Nilgiri mountains.

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Anna Norrby Andersson

Swallows Fellow, Sweden
Climate Change at Keystone

Anna has a bachelor's degree in Development Studies from Uppsala University, Sweden. She joined Keystone Foundation in February 2023 where she is interning with the Climate Change programme. At Keystone she is excited to engage with sustainable development at a local level, learning from both the organisation and the community.

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Mehrnaz Taklif

Swallows Fellow, Sweden
Community Well-being at Keystone

Mehrnaz has a master's degree in Business Administration and has also studied Human Rights at Enskilda University in Stockholm. She joined Keystone in February 2023. With a great interest in people, Mehrnaz looks forward to learning about the holistic work Keystone is doing in Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve for indigenous tribes and their right to governance, health, and livelihood.

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Ellen Teir

Swallows Fellow, Sweden
Community Well-being at Keystone

Ellen graduated from Uppsala University in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies. She joined Keystone Foundation's Community Wellbeing programme in February 2023 and is looking forward to learning about how it is to work on development issues at a grassroot level and in the unique environmental context of the Nilgiris.

Reet Gauraya

Reet Goraya

Oberlin Shansi Fellow, U.S.A
Community Well-being at Keystone

While pursuing a B.A. in Biology from Oberlin College, Reet conducted research on the AIDS epidemic and clinical trial work for drug development. Since graduating in 2021, she has been interning with the Community Wellbeing programme at Keystone and will continue until June 2023, focusing on health-related work, particularly woman and adolescent health, mental health, and nutrition.