A 10-week virtual program, Next Leaders offers young activists training in public scholarship, that is, the connection between policy research, advocacy, and grassroots activism. Through its workshop and events series and individualized mentorship, Next Leaders looks to sharpen young scholar-activists’ voices and hone their skills. In addition to hands-on experience, each cohort will leave the program with a more nuanced understanding of environmental, racial, economic, gender, and peace justice.
Here’s a little bit more about how the program works. It’s broken into four parts:
1.Workshop and Events Series – We’ve prepared a curriculum of weekly workshops and events geared toward the following:
In addition to strengthened public scholarship skills, each cohort will leave the program with a more nuanced understanding of environmental, racial, economic, gender, and peace justice. Past workshops have included Op-ed Writing, Public Speaking, Racial Justice and Critical Race Theory, Power-Mapping and the Modern-day Labor Movement, and Restorative Justice.
2. Mentorship – Each participant will get hands-on experience by working on one of our projects and will receive individualized mentorship and training from one of our IPS public scholars. Typical responsibilities include research, writing, shadowing on events with core allies, occasional “trips” to the Hill (which will now be virtual), and helping us with our social media presence. All of our interns also have the opportunity to work with our skilled editors and write for our in-house publications, and we often see participants’ work placed in notable publications such as USA Today and the Nation. Our interns work within one of the following core areas:
3.Intergenerational Dialogue – A centerpiece of our definition of public scholarship is that we work on ideas with movement allies. Through the Next Leaders Program you’ll not only get plugged into the larger progressive network, but you’ll also be exposed to best practices of coalition building, grassroots activism, and organizing. And, you’ll have a chance to design your own mini-dialogue series with your cohort and our staff.
4.Coaching and Career Development – We want to see our fellows find lasting careers in social change. Each fellow will receive at least 3 individual coaching sessions and resume reviews during the program and follow-up support after the program.
We offer an hourly wage of $15 for 37.5 hours weekly to offset the cost of working with IPS while you help us build the future of the progressive movement.
IPS firmly believes that financial barriers shouldn’t exclude people from internship opportunities, and we are grateful to our donors who have made it possible to ensure this internship is paid. However, we strongly encourage applicants to find resources through their schools and other scholarships if they have the ability to do so. Many schools offer assistance for summer internship programs, and we ask that all applicants explore those options first in order to allow us to accept a greater number of interns that do not have access to those resources.
Interns may also receive academic credit, and IPS is happy to assist interns in filling out any requisite forms to help with the credit process.
Summer 2021 Application Deadline: March 21, 2021 by 5 PM EST
March 21 – April 5, 2021: Final applicants will be contacted for interviews, interviewed, and notified of acceptance to the program during this time. Due to the high volume of applications, only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.
June 1, 2021: Internship begins (please note, June 1st and June 2nd are important orientation days!)
August 6th, 2021: Internship ends
Interns are expected to be available Monday-Friday(37.5 hours per week). Please state your availability on your application. While we can offer some flexibility for students with special circumstances, we want to plan our workshop series with the highest level of attendance possible.
Our ideal applicants will be interested in exploring lasting careers in social justice, will be conversational and persuasive writers, and will have a deep belief in intersectional, equitable solutions. We are deeply committed to recruiting a diverse group of candidates. The ideal candidates are interested in seeking careers in social change, and are deeply rooted in their communities (however they are defined) or have a history of activism around issues they care about. Although we are not explicitly limiting our applicant pool, we believe that rising Juniors, Seniors, recent graduates, and first year master’s students will gain the most from this program.
Please fill out the application form. You are welcome to apply for up to two internship positions (descriptions listed in depth on our website.
The Institute for Policy Studies is a progressive think tank dedicated to building a more equitable, ecologically sustainable, and peaceful society. We believe progress occurs when people and movements come together to act on powerful ideas based on equity, peace, and the protection of our planet. Since 1963, we have been challenging corrupt power structures that undermine a true democracy. Today, we are uniting people and movements around real, transformational change through independent research, networking across issues, and visionary platforms.
IPS is strengthened by the diversity of our network and our differences in background, culture, experience, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and much more. We strongly encourage applications from people of color, women, the LGBTQIA community, and other groups that have historically been subject to discrimination.