Youth Civic Leader Fellowship

What is the Youth Civic Leader Fellowship? The Youth Civic Leader Fellowship is a yearlong program designed to give high school age students the experiences, skills, and direction to turn their passions into real change. Fellows receive $1000 stipend, financial support for all activities and travel and may receive school credit. For Fellows, we estimate a commitment of 10 days of activities and 10-15 hours per month to plan and coordinate. Contact Alison McCaffree at alison@politicsofthepossible with questions.

Learn more. Download a brochure to read the details of the fellowship.

2022 – 2023 IS NOW OPEN – APPLY TODAY

Applications for the 2022 – 2023 Fellowship is now open.
Deadline: Rolling Applications and Acceptance.

STUDENTS APPLY ONLINE – HERE. (4 short essay questions)
Preview questions in a Word document HERE

RECOMMENDATIONS – SUBMIT ONLINE HERE (6 short answer questions)
Preview questions in a Word documents HERE

Rylie Luhring, former Fellow, talks about what she learned.

Key Outcomes for Fellows:
1. Understand who is influential in changing the practices, policies and laws around an issue.
2. Learn to give testimony to the city council or state legislature, plan a social media campaign, organize peers, and develop new policies or practices.
3. Act with courage and confidence to make change in your community and the world.

For the 2022-2023 cycle, PPA will select 4-6 students from high schools to participate. We seek youth who are passionate about a cultural or systemic issue but have not yet acted upon it. Youth with high integrity and self-motivation will do well.

To be eligible for the fellowship you must:

(1) Submit a complete application by the deadline.
(2) Have at least one person submit a Recommendation for you by submitting a recommendation form. Form can be found here: https://forms.gle/ZzrFKv8KzZEMHsvz7 or links at https://politicsofthepossible.com/fellowship. Your recommendation should come from someone who knows you well and can speak to your interest in the fellowship. Recommenders should NOT be immediate family members. They can be teachers, coaches, other advisors or community members.

Not a student, but want to be involved? Here’s how.

We seek engaged educators, school staff and community members to be nominators, mentors, and network openers.

Nominators know the youth well and can attest to their passion and commitment. Fill out a short nomination form. You may be contacted to discuss the candidate further.

Mentors are passionate about civic engagement, meet regularly with Fellows at your school, help develop activities and capstone projects, and generally guide and encourage the Fellows.

Network openers are people influential in the community that can connect Fellows to decision makers, people in position of power, and other influencers.

What can adults do next?

(1) Contact Alison McCaffree if you are interested – call, email or text!
(2) Encourage students to apply online here
(2) Recommend students who would be great candidates

For more information please contact: Alison McCaffree, Executive Director, Politics of the Possible in Action, 253-720-6813, alison@politicsofthepossible.com