AIR Student Organizing Fellowships
Are you tired of watching immigrant families be broken apart through raids and deportations,
or wait for years for family visas to come through?
Are you sick of racial profiling or outright violence by law enforcement?
Are you angry about the exploitation immigrant workers face in the fields or in the backs of our
restaurants?
Do you know immigrant students whose dreams are being denied because of their status?
Do you want to do something about it?
The American Dream is still alive, but we have to fight for it. The Alliance for Immigrants Rights
& Reform – Michigan is a statewide coalition of faith, labor, business, social service, civil rights
and student organizations working to fix the broken immigration system and support immigrant
families. This summer, we are beginning a stipended organizing fellowship program for the
next generation of leaders.
Students and youth have always been key leaders in movements for social justice. The AIR
Student Organizing Fellowship program is an opportunity open to college students in Michigan
who wish to learn the theory and practice of community organizing in the immigrants rights
movement and put those lessons to work.
Fellows make an initial year-long commitment to organizing. During the summer of 2011,
fellows will learn community organizing skills during a full-time internship at AIR’s offices in
Dearborn, Michigan. Fellows will support and lead active organizing campaigns and will
participate in a structured community organizing curriculum. Following the summer campaign,
fellows will return to campus and build their own campus immigrants rights campaigns and
organizations.
During the summer internship, fellows will lead and assist with organizing “know-your-rights”
meetings in neighborhoods across Southeast Michigan, identify and lead campaigns on behalf
of families facing deportation or struggling with the broken immigration system, support
organizing campaigns for the rights of immigrant workers, register and educate immigrants
rights voters, and support advocacy for better federal and state immigration laws.
Fellows will learn:
-How to build and tell one’s own personal story of social action and power
-How to build powerful “organizing relationships” built on mutual self-interest
-How to build organizing teams
-How to build a “campaign arc,” write a strategy, identify targets and tactics and
conduct a power analysis
-How to work with the media, run press conferences, write press releases, identify press
opportunities, and build narratives and messages
-How to use social media and online organizing in coordination with traditional
community organizing
-How to manage modern voter databases and manipulate and analyze voter data
-How to use cell phone text messaging systems for organizing
-How and when to organize “direct actions” such as marches, rallies, pickets, etc.
Qualifications:
-Fellows should be currently enrolled at a Michigan college, university, or community college,
and plan on returning for the fall of 2011 and winter of 2012.
-Fellows should have their own car, a valid drivers license, and cell phone.
-Fellows should have basic knowledge of one of the following foreign languages: Spanish,
Arabic, Chaldean, Polish, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Hmong, Mandarin, Cantonese, French or
Albanian. Fluency is not required.
-Fellows should be prepared for a year-long commitment to building power for the immigrants
rights movement in the neighborhood and on campus.
-Fellows should be prepared for personally powerful and emotionally difficult circumstances
and situations.
-Fellows should be prepared to work very hard, often with little supervision, on important
projects in a fast-paced environment.
Program Description:
-Fellows will be expected to work 40 hours per week during the summer of 2011. This schedule
will be flexible, with meetings in the evenings or on weekends.
-Fellows will be expected to build a campus organization or coalition during the fall 2011 and
winter 2012 semester at their college or university. This work should take approximately 10
hours per week.
Compensation:
-Fellows will be compensated $2000 for the year-long program.
Application:
Applicants should send a resume, including relevant school projects and course-work, volunteer
experiences and clubs and students groups to Mary Birkett at mmbirkett@gmail.com.
Applicants should also send a 1-page single-spaced essay on the topic of “If I could change one
thing in the world.”
Complete applications are DUE February 28th.
For more information about the Alliance for Immigrants Rights & Reform – Michigan, please
visit www.michiganimmigrationreform.org.