eMILY NICHOLSON

2025 Summer Intern

At DevryBV, Emily leads business development in Rochester, NY, to help expand the firm’s Mainstreet Strategy there. She spent a month with the firm in Minnesota and now works from New York. 

Emily is a rising junior at Cornell University studying Environment and Sustainability with a concentration in Sustainable Business and Economics. Through her coursework, she has gained a strong foundation in sustainability and business strategy. 

During her undergraduate experience, she worked with the Cornell Sustainability Consultants on the Sustainable Beverage team as an Associate Consultant, providing pro bono consulting services to local Ithaca beverage companies. She helped secure their last two clients through direct outreach and has developed deliverables on topics such as anaerobic digesters and community solar. Next semester she will serve as project manager for her sub-team, where she looks forward to mentoring new members and leading the team's client interactions and deliverables. 

She also worked as a Research Assistant in the Virginia Moore Lab, assisting with field research that documented plant reactions to cold temperatures. Her responsibilities included planting, data collection, tissue extraction, and post-harvest handling.

Last semester, she joined the Energy Transition Club and completed a comprehensive New Member Education program focused on key topics in the energy transition. She collaborated with a team to produce a final deliverable comparing the cost-effectiveness and implementation of distributed energy resources (DERs) for residential customers in New York State. She looks forward to joining a sub-team on Anaerobic Digestion next semester. 

On campus, she serves as a brand ambassador for Red Jacket Orchards, her family’s fresh fruit juice business in Geneva, NY. She organizes tabling events and performs store visits to increase brand awareness on campus. As a summer intern for the company, she gained experience working with the food safety and leadership team. 

She also interned at Upland Consulting, where she provided services to clients and developed research for internal use. She developed and presented slides on Upland’s methodology to ensure consistency across the firm. She also worked on strategic planning and market research for their clients. 

In addition to her academic and consulting work, Emily is a published writer. Her op-ed, “The Future of Farming is Solar,” was featured in FingerLakes1.com, where she explores the potential for clean energy development in rural New York and the role of agrivoltaics in the energy transition.

Outside of work, Emily enjoys playing soccer, running, working out at the gym, and traveling. She is passionate about climate solutions and hopes to pursue a career in sustainability consulting.