The TWR Youth Action Fellowship Program is a one-year leadership development accelerator built by the Together We Remember Coalition to connect, train, and activate twenty high-potential student leaders across the world to be exemplary human rights advocates.

Fellows will apply the lessons of the past to the present to counter division and hate in their schools, communities, and on social media. Together we will remember humanity at its worst to inspire humanity to be its best until “never again” is a reality, once and for all.

Applications for our second cohort will open in July 2021.

Meet Our Founding Fellows

What we are looking for

1. You are a leader on the rise who is engaged in your community.

You have the potential to immediately apply the knowledge, skills, and relationships from the fellowship experience in an impactful way. You are ready to take the next step in your journey as a changemaker at the intersection of remembrance, justice, and peacebuilding.

2. You bring diversity in thought and experience.

Your story will help open the hearts and minds of our community members and foster equity and inclusion in our work.

3. You have experience leading social change projects and campaigns.

You are wise beyond your years and have lessons learned to share with peers from past successes (and failures) as a changemaker.

4. You are resilient and optimistic.

Adversity brings the best out in you as an activist. You understand that encountering resistance is part of advocacy and believe there’s always a way to overcome it.

5. You are mature and serious about your activism.

You are thoughtful about how you communicate on social media and other sensitive contexts and avoid attention-grabbing stunts. You may be an influencer, but you are careful about how you use your influence.

6. You are creative and visionary.

You believe social change is more of an artform than a science. You have what John Paul Lederach calls the “moral imagination” - the capacity to see a path to justice, healing, and peace where others don’t. Not only do you see this path, you are ready, willing, and able to build it with others with a bit of support.

7. You see yourself as a steward of memory and truth.

You believe in the power of collective memory to spark collective action in the fight against hate.

Eligibility

  • Age 14 - 25

  • Have sufficient English fluency to participate in our application, interviews, and programs

  • Able to commit 3-5 hours per week for the complete duration of the fellowship year

  • Nominated by a social justice organization or teacher that can endorse your application
    *We ask every candidate to have an organization or teacher that is willing to support your application and partner with you on the Social Action Project that you will lead.

The Fellowship Experience in 2020 - 2021

TWR Youth Action Fellows are awarded a modest stipend, offered virtual mentorship, workshops, and field trips, and provided access to all major TWR programs throughout the year, including our Virtual Global Allyship Summit. They translate their learning into action through social action projects that foster truth, justice, and reconciliation in their communities and beyond. Fellows engage as colleagues and peers with TWR’s global community, which includes survivors, educators, scholars, expert practitioners, and civic leaders. They are the dreamers and doers that lead the TWR Youth Action Network, a global community of student activists committed to bridging the gap between education and action to end identity-based violence. See below for a detailed timeline of activities that fellows can expect:

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2020

  • Nominations: TWR Coalition Members, partners, and educators in our global network nominate high potential student leaders to apply to be TWR Youth Action Fellows.

  • Applications: Candidates submit applications, get interviewed, and receive decisions. A committee of reviewers made up of TWR staff, board members, and advisers will evaluate candidates and choose the Fellows.

JANUARY - MARCH 2021

  • Virtual Retreat: Fellows connect and collaborate for the first time, shaping the trajectory of their year-long journey together.

  • Virtual Mentorship: Fellows are matched with young professionals in the human rights field to get coaching and support during the fellowship and in their journeys as human rights activists. 

  • Virtual Field Trips: Fellows experience "virtual trips" to sites of conscience (museums / memorials / organizations) around the world to better understand past atrocities and efforts to turn remembrance into action. 

  • Virtual Workshops: In partnership with TWR staff, Fellows curate youth and expert-led workshops to prepare them to be reliable and effective human rights advocates and influential representatives of the TWR Youth Action Network and TWR Coalition. Workshop topics may include: history of genocides and atrocities, effective allyship, writing op-eds, fundraising, digital activism, bridge-building best practices, countering polarization and dangerous speech, activist wellness. 

  • Virtual Global Allyship Summit: Fellows design a youth-led track at our first ever all-virtual summit. The summit will connect, inspire, inform, and activate our community members worldwide to collaborate to build resilience to violent hatred during a period of heightened social unrest. Collaborations will culminate in April 2021, during our annual Genocide Awareness Month campaign. 

  • Monthly Blog Post: Fellows choose a thoughtful, relevant question inspired by current events and submit a paragraph discussing their perspective on that question. Responses will be posted on the TWR blog and social media for our followers to see and dialogue with. Fellows with especially compelling reflections will be invited to write extended pieces for the TWR blog or op-eds. 

  • Monthly Public Program: Fellows design and offer a monthly virtual experience that is relevant and open to the public, but primarily by youth for youth. Programs may include: poetry slams, interfaith dialogues, panel discussions, and skill-building workshops. 

  • Social Action Project Development: Fellows consider the meaning of “never again” in their lives and to their communities to design and implement a social action project that turns remembrance into action. Projects must be publicly unveiled by April 2021 as part of TWR’s Genocide Awareness Month campaign. Fellows will receive dedicated, personal coaching from TWR team and mentors. 

APRIL 2020

  • Genocide Awareness Month: Fellows’ projects culminate during TWR’s annual global campaign. For example, fellows may “go public” with their project by curating a unique virtual experience offered to youth or even the entire TWR community (e.g. hosting one hour of our 24-hour virtual global vigil). See here for the final hour of our 2020 virtual global vigil led by our students.  

  • Ongoing Activities: Virtual Mentorship | Monthly Blogpost

MAY - SEPTEMBER 2021

  • Evaluation, Feedback, & Next Steps: TWR evaluates immediate impact of program on Fellows and Fellows provide feedback on their experience. We will analyze results and provide recommendations on how program should evolve. 

  • Virtual Internships: Facilitate unique, paid internships with TWR, TWR Coalition Members, and TWR partners across the US and the world to explore careers in collective memory and human rights. Options to be developed for summers, semesters, and calendar year. Exemplary fellows invited to apply. 

  • Ongoing Activities: Virtual Mentorship | Monthly Public Program | Monthly Blogpost 

for nominators & Sponsors

Launching this fellowship is an enormous undertaking, but our decade of experience building a global youth-led movement in #TogetherWeRemember has prepared us for this moment. Still, we are counting on your nominations and support to ensure this program is inclusive, impactful, and sustainable for years to come. Here’s how you can get involved and make a difference:

  • If you are a TWR Coalition Member: Your annual investment in TWR includes full access to this program at no additional cost. Please nominate high-potential student-leaders in your community to apply as soon as possible!

  • If you are not a TWR Coalition Member: We encourage your organization to nominate high-potential student-leaders in your community, but ask that you sponsor nominees if they are accepted into the program. The requested investment is $1,000 per student, which is 50% of the cost per student to participate in this intensive, year-long initiative. If this request is a challenge, please contact us to discuss other resourcing options.

  • If you are an educator: We do not expect you to sponsor your student nominees financially. That said, if you have a relationship with a local Holocaust, genocide, or human rights organization in your community, we may ask you to connect us so we can explore the possibility of their financial support.

  • If you are a student-leader without a nominator / sponsor: Please still apply! We are committed to providing access to this program to all high-potential student leaders, regardless of their ability to secure a nomination or sponsorship. If you meet the criteria of what we are looking for, we will find a way to support you.

  • If you are philanthropic funder: We invite you to contribute to our Youth Action Fund, which will allow us to provide scholarships to students without organization sponsors from under-resourced communities in the United States and around the world. Make a secure donation here on our website or contact us to discuss this opportunity further.

Before you go: A bit of inspiration from US

get connected. get inspired.

get informed. get involved.

#TogetherWeRemember