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CLOSED: Join our team! NAKASEC Civic Engagement Fellowship!

By February 22, 2020June 1st, 2021No Comments
Join Our Team!

NAKASEC Civic Engagement Fellowship

Full-Time or Part-Time

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

Founded by local community-based organizations in 1994, NAKASEC’s mission is to organize Korean and Asian Americans to achieve social, racial and economic justice. NAKASEC’s Affiliates: Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles and Orange County, Hana Center in Chicago and NAKASEC Virginia in Annandale empower the most vulnerable community members including the low-income, recent immigrant, limited English proficient, undocumented, youth, women and seniors. Through education, social service, community organizing, public policy advocacy and civic participation, NAKASEC & Affiliates ensure that these community members can impact progressive change at the local and national levels.

 

NAKASEC is one of the few national Asian American organizations that engages grassroots

people in national organizing and advocacy programs and campaigns. NAKASEC & affiliates

strongly believe that systemic change that benefits everyone results when folks who are most

impacted by injustice act collectively through organizing, advocacy and civic engagement.

 

Fellowship Description

 

As the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, Asian Americans are an increasingly influential voting bloc in our elections. Our Civic Engagement Fellowship Program aims to tap into the voting power of our community by training and developing young Asian American leaders to engage the Asian American electorate in Pennsylvania for the 2020 presidential election. 

 

Civic Engagement Fellows will work closely with the national NAKASEC team to develop and implement a civic engagement strategy to maximize Korean and Asian American voter turnout in Pennsylvania. Tasks and responsibilities will include:

 

  • Engaging with the Korean and Asian American communities through regular phone banking, canvassing, texting, and door-knocking
  • Recruiting and empowering local volunteers 
  • Conducting community outreach through contact with local businesses, churches, and institutions
  • Organizing community events and mass meetings to meet and develop relationships with community members

Duration

 

Our fellowship program runs from July 20 to November 6 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for two different lengths of duration, full-time or part-time, to accommodate different lived experiences:

 

  1. July 20 – August 21 (5 weeks)

  2. July 20 – November 6 (16 weeks)

 

Compensation

 

Fellows will be compensated with a stipend dependent upon the duration of their participation in the program. Fellows participating in our summer cohort (July 20 – August 21) will receive $1,000. Fellows participating in the entirety of our fellowship program (July 20 – November 6) will receive $6,000. Housing, food, and transportation for fellows will be provided.

 

Preferred Experience and Skills

 

  • Strong vision of community empowerment and deep commitment to change the world with marginalized communities
  • Willingness to be a bold, out-of-the-box and creative thinker
  • Enjoys both listening to and sharing ideas and opinions
  • Willingness to propose and think about new ideas and concepts
  • Ready to resist racism, patriarchy, homophobia, classism and ableism
  • Believes that marginalized community members can and should lead organizing and advocacy campaigns
  • Believes that collective groups can be more powerful than individuals
  • Experience organizing Asian Americans towards social, racial and economic justice issues
  • Strong understanding of issues facing the Asian American community and other marginalized communities including people of color, women, and LGBTQ community members
  • Excited about individual, organizational and societal transformation
  • Ability to work well in and build a team and is committed to modeling the world we want to see inside the organization and its campaigns and programs
  • Ability to work well in and build coalitions
  • Ability to travel
  • Ability to work some evenings and weekends
  • Bilingual in English and an Asian language is preferred
  • Ties to the Asian American community in Philadelphia and/or Pennsylvania at-large is a plus

Please note there is no requirement for applicants to be students, or to hold an educational degree. Our fellowship is open to all who believe in the power of our community to enact progressive change together when we organize! 

 

Application Process

 

Priority applications are due on Friday, March 20, 2020. All applications are due by Sunday, May 31, 2020. 

 

Please send your resume, cover letter, and two references to Esther (ejeon@nakasec.org) and Seongwon (seongwon@nakasec.org) with the subject “[Insert Name] – Civic Engagement Fellowship Application.” For your references, please include your reference’s name, their relation to you, their email, and their phone number. Note that we consider all lived experiences to be valuable work experience, whether that entails working as a cashier, translating documents for your parents, or organizing as a student club leader!

 

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the final deadline of May 1, and decisions will be shared 3 to 4 weeks within the time of your application submission. 

 

If you have further questions about our Civic Engagement Fellowship program, please contact Esther (ejeon@nakasec.org) and Seongwon (seongwon@nakasec.org).

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