In the midst of a trip throughout Ecuador, re-connecting with the country where I graduated high school, I had the opportunity yesterday to speak at my high school, Academia Cotopaxi, addressing a mix of 6^th-10^th graders.

My speech consisted of two main themes.  The first focused on Generation Citizen – the reason I created it (namely, the energy I felt in emerging democracies like Kenya and Ecuador, and trying to re-create that enthusiasm state-side) and the importance of youth voice.  The second was a little more nuanced – I tried to weave a personal identity crisis that I feel like I’m having into a larger discussion on cross-cultural learning that can happen when people from diverse backgrounds interact, which is what happens every day at Cotopaxi.  I think that the theme might have been a little above the head of the sixth graders, but it’s one that I’m thinking a lot about these days, and one that I think is important, both personally, but also for the work of Generation Citizen (and the larger sector).

From a personal perspective, I’ve been thinking a lot about my identity as I conclude my eighth straight year in the United States, and get ready to spend a third year in New York City, which is ages for me.  Those that know me know that I talk incessantly about my experiences growing up abroad, and the formative impact that it played on my current work and perspectives.  It still does, but the problem that I’m having internally is that I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that I’m actually pretty damn American.  Granted, there’s no such thing as a typical American in our melting pot of a nation.  But, I feel more at home in the U.S. than I do abroad.  I live for football Sundays, follow American politics like many follow the Khardasians, and almost all of my friends are pure American born and bred.

So why does this bother me a little bit?  Well, at the same time that I’m having this mini “identity crisis” of figuring out who I am, Generation Citizen is doing the same.  As we get bigger, and beyond the start-up phase, it’s incumbent on us to better define our culture and organizational values, rather than solely relying on five employees really liking each other to get the job done.

But as we talk about culture and values, the notion of diversity is coming up a lot.  To be blunt, which I think needs to happen in these conversations, our staff (and Board) is too white, too Ivy League-centric, and probably, too progressively-leaning for an organization that really does need to be non-partisan.

But I also want to clarify why I think this is important.  Diversity for the sake of diversity is a dangerous road to travel down.  The problem that I’m starting to have is that, for an organization that focuses on empowering previously un-engaged young people to make a difference in their communities through the political process, the majority of Generation Citizen’s backbone is comprised of individuals that have always been able to engage, if they want to.  And by missing the opposite perspective, namely, from people that have been oppressed in some form by a slightly broken political system, we’re missing a crucial voice at the table that could help us dramatically improve our programming.

Some of this is our fault – we need to work to diversify every part of our organization, from our Democracy Coaches to our staff to our Board, for the reasons described above.  And I am committed to making that happen.  But some of the fault for this lies in the sector at large.

Namely, and being honest again, one of the main reasons that Generation Citizen is as successful as it is today (and we have a long  way to go) is that I, the founder, came from an upper-middle class family, got a great education, had supportive parents, and went to an Ivy League school. Thus, when I had an idea, I quickly had an army of supporters that wanted to help, and already trusted me.  I’m not saying my hard work didn’t play a role – it did.  But the social entrepreneurial movement suffers from placing too much faith in folks like me, who are already really connected, and too little in individuals and organizations that do not have my pedigree, for a variety of reasons.

This “movement” either rewards pedigree, or cares about diversity to the extent that it is important to see color on the Board or leadership team. I have seen foundation applications where we literally have to calculate the percentage of our team that is African-American. This encourages quota treatment, rather than the type of diversity I write about above.  Additionally, while GC does need to get better on diversity, without knowing our team, you wouldn’t know that multiple staff members (and Board members) are the first in their family to go to college, while others spent a majority of their childhood abroad.

So, as I travel throughout Ecuador, trying to learn more about my own increasingly American identity, GC is trying to figure out its own. Which is really hard. But it’s also impossible to do alone.  This entire sector needs to figure out how to have a conversation on the importance of diversity, determine which voices are currently missing from the conversation (a lot), and have the conversations on how to get to a better, more inclusive place.  But the problem is that these conversations are really uncomfortable.  They require people like me admitting that our background and pedigree have helped our organizations be successful.  They involve bringing people to the table that might disagree with our approaches.  But it’s necessary. I think it’s high time for all of us to have an identity crisis.

~Scott Warren, Generation Citizen Executive Director

Generation Citizen

New York Program Associate

 Download the full job description HERE .

About Generation Citizen:

Generation Citizen (www.GenerationCitizen.org) is an innovative, quickly scaling non-profit that seeks to strengthen our nation’s democracy by empowering young people to become engaged and effective citizens. To achieve this mission, we partner volunteer college student Democracy Coaches with classroom teachers to teach an action civics course in which teens solve problems they are facing in their own communities.

In just three years, Generation Citizen (GC) has grown rapidly to serve over 6,000 students this year in our three cities, training over 250 college Democracy Coaches to work in 160 classrooms. Over the next five years, we will deepen our presence in our current cities, including our new office in San Francisco, and expand to two additional new cities to serve more than 20,000 students per year. GC is looking to recruit top talent to effectively run our programs, increase our impact, and improve our systems as we prepare to scale.

At GC, you will be working in a fast-paced environment. A successful candidate will possess strong interpersonal and organizational skills, as well as the ability to manage a heavy workload with corresponding responsibilities. Through programmatic oversight and collaboration with other staff, the successful candidate will be able to proactively identify opportunities to improve our program, structures, and systems. You will be working with a small, but passionate team, giving you the ability to help shape the future of the organization. We are therefore looking for someone interested in committing at least two years to the organization. Apply today if you are interested in putting your entrepreneurial spirit and talent to work in helping to grow and improve GC, ensuring that all students possess the tools they need to make change in their communities.

Job Responsibilities:

The primary responsibilities of the Generation Citizen New York Program Associate will be to support management of existing GC programming in New York City at both the university and school level, as well as support GC’s efforts to increase its presence and effectiveness in the city. The Program Associate will report to the New York Program Manager. Flexible start date, Summer 2013.

College Student Talent and Leadership Development

• Provide particular support to college leaders on outreach and recruitment efforts, ensuring that each campus attracts and retains an increasing number of high-quality Democracy Coaches so as to position GC for true systemic change in New York City
• Help develop and provide initial and ongoing training and support for:
  • New York college volunteers to ensure their own civic growth and their ability to be successful in the classroom; and
  • College leaders to ensure their own civic growth and their ability to build and strengthen their college chapters
  • Attend chapter meetings on partner campuses and participate in chapter leader calls to provide constructive feedback to GC Chapter Directors
  • Innovate and create new systems and structures to support and develop college volunteers

School Recruitment and Support

• Establish relationships with administrators and schools to lay groundwork for successful and enduring school partnerships
• Provide initial and ongoing training and support for teachers to ensure that they can successfully co-teach the action civics course alongside a GC college volunteer
• Manage ongoing school relationships with program teachers and administrators at assigned schools
• Lead school recruitment efforts within assigned neighborhoods, as part of GC’s school outreach strategy

Program Expansion and Strengthening

• Conduct regular classroom observations and provide constructive feedback to GC Democracy Coaches and Chapter Directors and support to teachers
• Improve and implement systems of volunteer background checks, volunteer-to-school placement, communication, and data collection to ensure smooth day-to-day program operation (alongside NY Program Manager)
• Plan and execute NY Civics Day at the end of each semester, in which 200 students present their action projects to community leaders and public officials (alongside NY Program Manager)
• Collaborate with other program staff to continually improve and contribute to national efforts in order to achieve overall desired program outcomes
• Cultivate high level relationships across sectors (elected office, on campus, and in community) to further and deepen program impact
• Coordinate site-specific enrichment opportunities to deepen students’, volunteers’, and teachers’ civic engagement

Qualifications

• B.A or B.S. degree
• Passion for Generation Citizen’s vision of a democracy in which everyone participates, and a demonstrated belief in the unique potential of college students to help realize this vision

• Significant leadership experience supervising, managing, and training others
• Strong communication skills in order to connect to, engage, and inspire diverse constituencies, including college students, high school partners, supporters, and community members
  • Significant experience leading recruitment, marketing, or organizing efforts on college campuses, with a track record of employing highly strategic and diverse recruitment tactics
  • Strong organizational skills and high level of attention to detail, necessary for ordering a complex schedule and tracking progress of simultaneous projects
  • Demonstrated ability to respond proactively to highly unstructured environments and to navigate challenging situations and challenging relationships with creativity and diplomacy
  • Ability and excitement to model Generation Citizen’s Core Values: Emphasis on Process, Diverse Relationships, Openmindedness, Systemic Change, and Pragmatic Idealism

The following characteristics are preferred, although not required:

• At least six months post-college work experience
• Political campaign experience and/or community organizing experience
• Entrepreneurial experience (starting or dramatically growing an organization, group, or movement)
• Experience working with middle- or high school-aged youth, either in a classroom or in a community setting
• Knowledge of the New York City community

To apply

• Qualified candidates should send a resume, cover letter, and a list of 2-3 references to Jobs@GenerationCitizen.org. Please include “New York Program Associate” in your email subject line.
• No telephone inquiries please. Generation Citizen is an equal opportunity employer.

As a politically active 24-year-old living in New York, it may be surprising that I have such little confidence in my peers and near-peers. The reason for my skepticism: I looked at our voting record. The New York City Campaign Finance Board estimates that only 4% of eligible voters under the age of 30 cast a ballot in 2009 when Mayor Bloomberg won his third term. To be fair, the other age groups didn’t do that much better – in the 2009 general election for mayor, fewer than one in five New Yorkers (18.4%) eligible to vote actually participated in the election. That being said, a 4% voting rate for the under 30 crowd is terrifyingly low since young people in New York have been impacted by Bloomberg’s administration in many ways.

Although Bloomberg may be remembered for some of his more sensationalized initiatives such as the extension of mayoral term limits or the soda ban, his administration has also had a tremendous impact in education, public safety, and NYC’s job market. Under Bloomberg, 32 publicly elected school boards were replaced by centralized mayoral control of the NYC education system. Many new schools have opened over the last few years, but over 160 other schools have been closed or are in the process of being phased out. The high school graduation rate is now at a record high of 65 percent, but only 21 percent of these graduating high school students are adequately prepared for college or well-paying careers.  The homicide rate has dropped significantly since 2001 (714 in 2001; 419 in 2012) and public safety has improved in many communities, but there have been over 5 million civilian stops by the NYPD as part of the their controversial stop-and-frisk initiative and an estimated 55% of all individuals stopped were under the age of 25. I could keep listing examples, but the point is simply that young people in New York should care about who becomes their next mayor.

In an effort to engage young New Yorkers in the upcoming election, Generation Citizen has joined an initiative led by the Resilience Advocacy Project to host a youth-led NYC mayoral candidate debate on May 29th. Through an interactive website (www.youthvoicenyc.com), young people from all over the city have been able to submit and vote on questions covering youth employment, housing, education, and even immigration. While the questions may cover a number of topics, they’re all essentially asking the same thing: how will young people fare under the new NYC mayor?

To find out what the candidates have to say to young people all over the city, take a minute to explore the website: www.youthvoicenyc.com. On this site, you can help decide what questions should be posed to the mayoral candidates and then later watch the candidates answer these challenging and relevant questions during the mayoral debate on May 29th at 6:00 pm. And because I’m still hopeful that young people can influence the mayoral elections in a very real way, I have another request: if you’re a New Yorker and haven’t already done so, please register to vote in the upcoming primary and general elections (if you need help registering, check out www.turbovote.org).

~Emily Falk, New York Program Associate

My speech today was going to be about the theme of Generation Citizen, the notion of being an active citizen.   The notion of working in your communities, using the democratic process, to make change.  To make things better.  This, after all, is what you did throughout the semester.  You chose an issue.  And you tried to make a difference.

To give you context, this speech was going to be about my own life story.  You see, any story of myself begins with the fact that I spent almost my entire childhood living overseas, in Latin America and Africa. I came from an upper-middle class white family, and was lucky enough to always have what I needed to survive, and even thrive.  But as I spent time in my youth walking through slums in Kenya and rural areas in Ecuador, talking with opposition political candidates in Zimbabwe who had been tortured to the brink of death, interacting with refugees in Chad forced away from their families in Susan- all this instilled in me a deep sense of justice.  A sense of wanting to make this world a better place.  A sense of needing to make this world a better place.  A sense of doing everything I could to be a good citizen.  To make a difference.  I made a commitment to that goal, and much of my life’s work has been based on that.  Of attempting to put a cause on a pedestal, and doing everything I can to work on that cause.

And after telling you my story, I was going to tell you about some of my citizen heroes, – individuals who have put their causes, and the needs of larger communities over themselves. It’s a lesson than in a time like today, a time where we can be engrossed in our cell phones and social media, and really, ourselves, bares mentioning.  How can we be about more than ourselves?  The speech was going to be about individuals like Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa who was in jail for 27 years during the Apartheid era for the sake of his country, and who, upon returning, peacefully reconciled the country.  Individuals like the man who, on April 15^th, 1947, put a 42 on the back of his jersey and took the field just miles south of here in the old Ebbets Field, determined to both play baseball and make history, paving a better path forward for all African American baseball players, and a path towards equality for all Americans, period.  Jackie Robinson sacrificed much of himself, and in turn, made this country a better place.  Mandela and Robinson are undoubtedly heroes.  To me.  To all of us.

And then I realized that would be a silly speech.  That it would be rather cliché.  And it would be wasting an opportunity.  Because my actual hero, the person that has taught me nearly all the lessons I know today, the person I try to be more like every day, is sitting here today.  That person, my hero, is my mom.

When it all comes down to it, unlike Nelson Mandela and Jackie Robinson, my mom is probably not going to be in the history books.  In my account, she did leave a successful life- she was a probation officer and managed a small business, she worked with women on self-help projects in Zimbabwe, and she’s volunteered her entire life.  But what is most important is that not only is she a good citizen.  But she is a good person.  An incredible person. She is kind.  She is generous.  She brightens the day of anyone she comes into contact with.  She is honest.  She listens.  She puts the needs of others above herself.  She pushes me to be a better person, a person that she would be proud to call a son.  And to this end, she has made a difference in so many lives.   In my life.  In the lives of so many people she interacted with in Latin America and Africa.

So why is this relevant to you?  Why should you care about my mom?  Or Jackie Robinson, for that matter?  What do they all have to do with Generation Citizen?

Because the truth is, being a good citizen and being a good person are one in the same.  In order to really make this world a better place, in order to really make a difference on all the issues you all talked about today- from gang violence to teen pregnancy to public transit, you need to use all of the skills and knowledge you learned throughout the semester in being a good citizen.  But you also need to be a good person.

For much of my life, I have focused so much on being a good citizen- I’ve done everything I could for the greater cause.  I’ve racked up the accolades, passed bills, and started a good program in Generation Citizen.  But I haven’t always been a good person.  I’ve bulldozed people along the way.  Friends, family members. But what I’ve started to learn, largely through my mom, is that it’s not all about the big change.  It’s not all about changing the world.  Sometimes, most of the time, it’s about our day to day interactions. It’s about being good.

The truth is, being a good person can be really really hard.  Think about yourselves.  When is the last time you were rude to a classmate, a teacher, a parent?  When is the last time you judged a peer, thinking they weren’t as good as you?  It’s not that we’re all bad people.  But our natural tendency is to think about ourselves.  The harder act to learn is to truly be empathetic.  Radically empathetic.  And to treat others like we would want to be treated ourselves.  All the time.

We have a lot of problems right now.  In our city, in our state, in our world.  And it’s incumbent on us to fix them.  The way to do so is to figure out how to combine being a good citizen with being a good person.

So how do we do this?  On one hand, I am telling you that in order to be a good citizen, we have to put the cause above ourselves.  We have to care less about our own needs, and more about those of society.  On the other hand, I am telling you to be deeply attuned to yourself, so that you can be radically empathetic to those around you.  Again, at least in my opinion, it’s really really hard.

But here’s a truth, that I really do believe in:

We all have a little bit of Jackie Robinson in us.  We all are ready to take a lead off first base, ready to sprint into second on the way home into a country of greater equality and acceptance.  And we are all ready and able to put that big cause, whatever it may be, above ourselves.  We need to do that.  We live in a society in which all too often, we are thinking about ourselves.  We need to think about more than that.  We need to channel Jackie.

And at the same time, we all have a little bit of my mom in us.  We can all be kinder to the people around us.  More empathetic.  We can listen.  We can make time for our friends and loved ones.  We can smile more.  We can make every interaction with those around us make their days better.

For, as the African American innovator and pioneer George Washington Carver stated, “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong.  Because someday in life, you will have been all of these.”

So today, I leave you with a challenge, a challenge that I have started doing myself.  Every morning, when you wake up, ask yourself two questions, which are really one in the same.  Today, how am I going to make this world a little bit better of a place?  And today, how am I going to be a little bit of a better person to those around me?   You won’t always succeed.  But just by trying, you will make the world a better place, and you will be better to those around me.  Every day, channel a little bit of Jackie.  And channel a little bit of my mom.

- Scott Warren, Generation Citizen Executive Director

But today, we’re launching a new look- a new logo, a new colors, and a new way to talk about ourselves. After a multi-month engagement with the Taproot Foundation, we’re all really excited about our new brand. Our mission and work is still the same. But we’re hopeful that this look gets people even more excited about our momentum.

There’s a few key aspects to note as you take a look around our new website and look:

• We want to be edgier: We felt that the light blue look of before was a little bland, and even a little corporate. We are a young organization that works with young people, and wants them excited about political action. We think these colors, and this logo, are a little bolder.
• We’re going national: A key part of the logo is a map of the entire United States of America. With our opening of the Bay Area office this year, we are showing that we are truly a national organization that wants to change the way the entire country thinks about educating our young people to become active citizens.
• We’re getting a little more political: The word “politics” is such a dirty word in today’s lexicon. But I want to start to embrace it. GC is all about young people becoming politically active. Not partisan. But working together in community to identify the root cause of societal problems and fix them. That is the true meaning of politics. So that’s why we want to talk about it.

A surprising amount goes into changing a logo and look, so thanks to all that made it happen. An extra big thanks goes to James Whale, our web designer, the entire team that worked with us at the Taproot Foundation (Mark, Smitha, Susan, Luciana, and Karen), our Board member Tom Panitz, and our entire staff, especially Mary McCarty, and former Managing Director Daniel Millenson, who started this process with us.

We hope that you enjoy it. Check back frequently- we’ll be updating our news and blog. And let us know what you think!

~Scott Warren, Executive Director

NEW YORK DC OF THE MONTH: RINA KATTAN, STUDENT AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

What brought you to GC?

After Rocky Solomon, a former Democracy Coach, told me about her experience at Generation Citizen I knew that I had to get involved. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to do what I enjoy most- interact with children. I never taught, so I cherished the opportunity for a new challenge.

What has been your favorite GC moment this semester?

It was 8 am and as usual, I prayed that the students would be awake enough to participate in the classroom discussion. I handed out lyrics to Lupe Fiasco’s song “Little Weapons,” and watched their faces as they read the lyrics. They were shocked that one of their favorite music artists wrote a song about youth gun violence. One of the students raised their hand, “Ms. K, this song is cool – I like it.” I finally felt that I wasn’t boring them – it was an accomplishment. The students had so much to say about the song that the conversation lasted the whole period.

How does your GC experience shape or contribute to your future academic or professional plans?

When I first started Generation Citizen I knew that I would enjoy teaching, but I never thought of pursuing a career in teaching. I love the thrill of being in a classroom and the challenge of trying to excite and empower the students. This opportunity helped me realize the impact a Democracy Coach could have and presented teaching as a potential long-term career.

How has your GC experience impacted your views on the importance of youth civic engagement?

From the start of my experience in the classroom I learned that the students are passionate about certain community issues. They were excited to share their opinions challenging conventional practices. I realized that they were never given the opportunity to engage in a conversation with their peers about these issues, nor bring about substantive change to their community. It is important for our youth to know they can acquire the skills to advocate for their community. Through classroom discussion, the students build the confidence to express their opinions so they can ultimately become community advocates.

PROVIDENCE DC OF THE MONTH: FATOUMATA DIAKITE, STUDENT AT BRYANT UNIVERSITY

What brought you to GC?

This semester I took a sociology course. One of the requirements was to find a community service you really want to do, and at the end of the semester present it to the entire class. Some of my classmates worked at soup kitchens, WaterFire Providence and others at hospitals. I decided to work in an educational environment because of my personal values and respect for the field. I had exposure to a few tutoring programs but seeing what GC did with helping students not only be active citizens but also build a platform for our future leaders attracted me to become part of this team. I was intrigued to be a part a movement that focused and understood the importance of youth empowerment.

What has been your favorite GC moment this semester?

My experience at GC was amazing. My favorite GC moment was getting familiar with my students. I had never tutored or mentored anyone else before so starting off, and I was really scared of taking the chance on my own. One girl with 25 high school students! The thought was terrifying but once I started, everything else became easy. I was not their teacher but rather a friend and a mentor and that really allowed them to freely express themselves.

How does your GC experience shape or contribute to your future academic or professional plans?

As a future social entrepreneur and most importantly a humanitarian, I believe that education is the key to a better world. It is important that one understands that before being a citizen of a nation we are citizens of the world. Being a Democracy Coach has shown me how to care for the youth. I believe that it is the greatest investment into more functional world. They are the ones to build the future so it is important to prepare them to become skillful citizens now.

How has your GC experience impacted your views on the importance of youth civic engagement?

When I first started, many of my students did not believe that they had the power to change anything. As the trimester went on, they will constantly ask me “are we really doing this?” One thing I have understood is that many do not participate in civic engagement in adulthood because at a young age they were not told the power they had to have a great impact in their schools, communities or the entire country. Being a part of GC and the process of strategically planning  to change an issue has allowed me to understand that anyone can make a change; age or socioeconomic standards are non-factors.

BOSTON DC OF THE MONTH: JUNHAO YU, STUDENT AT UMASS BOSTON

What brought you to GC?

I was brought to GC by the organization’s commitment to empower innercity youth through participatory politics, which is something that I’ve always believed in.

What has been your favorite GC moment this semester?

My favorite moment this semester has been the first day of school, because on that day I got to meet the kids that I’ll be working with and saw how excited they were because of my enthusiasm.

How does your GC experience shape or contribute to your future academic or professional plans?

My GC experience helped confirm my belief in myself as an effective advocate for grass root movements. I was able to revaluate the strengths and weaknesses of my interpersonal skills during the semester by working with different types of people, and I gained a better understanding of public policy through hands-on experience with GC.

How has your GC experience impacted your views on the importance of youth civic engagement?

My GC experience made me realize that there are many youngsters out there looking for guidance on how to become engaged citizens, so through the hopefulness and idealism that each DC’s posses these youngster are beginning to learn that they can be powerful beyond measure through civil advocacy.

Greater Boston Program Associate

Click here to download the full job description.

Generation Citizen is pleased to announce that we are hiring a Greater Boston Program Associate to round out our Boston team. While this is an entry-level position, we are looking for college seniors and recent graduates who have been deeply involved in student groups and/or professional opportunities while in college. Specifically, we are looking for highly entrepreneurial individuals who have considerable experience leading and coaching other college students to collaboratively tackle significant challenges.

About Generation Citizen: 

Generation Citizen (www.GenerationCitizen.org) is an innovative, quickly scaling non-profit that seeks to strengthen our nation’s democracy by empowering young people to become engaged and effective citizens, starting now.  To fulfill our mission, we partner college student Democracy Coaches with classroom teachers to teach an action civics course in which teens solve problems they are facing in their own communities.

In just three years, GC has grown rapidly to serve over 6,000 students this year in our three cities, training over 250 college Democracy Coaches to work in 160 classrooms. Over the next five years, we will deepen our presence in our current cities, and expand to three new sites to serve more than 20,000 students per year. GC is looking to recruit exceptional people to effectively run our programs, develop our talent, and increase our impact as we prepare to scale.

Hours and Terms:

• Position will be full-time with approximate start date August 2013.  Some evenings and weekends may be required. 
• Position will be based in Boston, MA. While access to a car is not necessary, candidates should expect to travel frequently throughout the Greater Boston area via public transportation.
• We ask candidates to be willing to make at least a 2-year commitment to Generation Citizen.

Specific job responsibilities will include:

College Student Leadership Development:  Provide intensive coaching and supervision to Greater Boston’s existing college leaders, empowering them to build a committed and highly effective cohort of college student Democracy Coaches and to achieve their chapter growth, retention, and quality goals.

Training and Quality Assurance for College Student Volunteers: In collaboration with the Greater Boston Program Manager and national Program team, provide training and ongoing support to college student Democracy Coaches to ensure that GC delivers the highest-quality civic education experience to Greater Boston students.  This includes:

• Helping to develop and lead initial orientation Training for Democracy Coaches and chapter leaders. 
• Conducting regular classroom observations in GC’s partner schools and providing constructive feedback to Democracy Coaches.
• Attending chapter meetings on partner campuses and participating in chapter leader calls to provide constructive feedback to GC Chapter Directors.
• Innovating new systems and structures to support and develop college volunteers.

College Student Volunteer Outreach and Recruitment:  Provide particular support to college leaders on outreach and recruitment efforts, ensuring that each campus attracts and retains an increasing number of high-quality Democracy Coaches so as to position GC for true systemic change in Greater Boston.  In collaboration with college leaders, employ and refine a variety of recruiting strategies, including establishing institutional partnership, enhancing campus visibility, developing partnerships with student organizations and departments, and creating systems and structures to continually engage potential volunteers.

New Campus Expansion: Lead expansion to new college campuses in Greater Boston, including private, public, and community colleges. Research and develop targeted strategy for expansion, engage administrative and faculty partners, and recruit and mentor entrepreneurial student leaders.

Qualifications:

• Significant experience setting and achieving extremely ambitious goals as part of a leadership role.

• Experience working with and managing college students, with a particular desire to develop their skills and knowledge and empower them to greater achievement.
• Demonstrated ability to respond proactively to highly unstructured environments and to navigate challenging situations and challenging relationships with creativity and diplomacy.
• Strong interpersonal and group facilitation skills, and demonstrated ability to connect to, engage, and inspire others.
• Ability and excitement to model Generation Citizen’s Core Values: Emphasis on Process, Diverse Relationships, Openmindedness, Systemic Change, and Pragmatic Idealism.

• Passion for Generation Citizen’s vision of a democracy in which everyone participates, and a fundamental belief in the unique potential of college students to help realize this vision.

The following characteristics are ideal, although not required:

• Entrepreneurial experience (starting or dramatically growing an organization, group, or movement).
• Political campaign experience and/or community organizing experience.
• Experience working with middle or high school aged youth, either in a classroom or in a community setting.
• Knowledge of the Greater Boston community.

Qualified candidates should send a resume, a thoughtful cover letter, and a list of 2-3 references to Jobs@GenerationCitizen.org. No telephone inquiries please. 

Generation Citizen is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer.  Candidates who reflect the diversity of the Greater Boston community are strongly encouraged to apply.

Perhaps, yes.  I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a real form of civic engagement.  Though the show is producing in me something I hadn’t predicted.  It’s energizing my drive to be more engaged in our democracy and to get others to do so as well.  I hold firmly to Generation Citizen’s mission of envisioning a democracy in which everyone participates, though I find lately that I have been stirred to especially want to focus on getting more girls and women involved.  West Wing is a well-written and entertaining show and accurately portrays gender roles in society it depicts from the last decade.  Therefore, the barrage of negativity that women face is especially frustrating to me.  It’s honestly not much better than the culture in Mad Men, which is set thirty years prior.

At one point, Sam registers his jealousy of the women having plush robes in their locker room at the White House, when he says, “Now, that’s outrageous.  There’s a thousand men working here and fifty women.”  To which CJ responds “Yeah, and it’s the bathrobes that’s outrageous.”  And she has a point.  How are we ever supposed to close the employment and wage earning gaps in this country when they come from the top down?  In 2011, only 6 of the top 20 earners in the White House were women.  And there is an $11,000 difference in median income for men and women.

Why do all of the conversations surrounding women in this show seem negative?  Chief of Staff Leo McGarry regarding a visiting ambassador: “You’re going to let him loose in the White House where there’s liquor and women?”  Bartlet: “We can hide the women, but the guy deserves a drink.”  Your women on staff are mostly relegated to secretarial positions, so now you’re just going to hide them entirely from the political decision-making scene?

Also, take for example this exchange:

Josh: You’re overreacting.

C.J.: Am I?

Josh: Yes.

C.J.: As women are prone to do.

Josh: That’s not what I meant.

C.J.: That’s always what you mean.

Josh: You know what, C.J., I really think I’m the best judge of what I mean, you paranoid Berkeley shiksa feminista! …whoa, that was way too far.

[…]

Josh: You look like a million bucks, by the way.

C.J.: Don’t try to make up with me.

Yeah.  So, stereotyping women’s personalities and thinking they can be placated with superficial comments about their looks.  Enough with the interpersonal oppression!

There are even examples of women contributing to their own (intra-personal) oppression. Ainsley Hayes: “I like it when the guys tease me. It’s an inadvertent show of respect I’m on the team and I don’t mind it when it gets sexual. And you know why? I like sex.”

Uh. Seriously?  Why is there nothing more substantive for this intelligent Republican leader to talk about other than her own body?  And why do no two women ever have a meaningful conversation with each other about something other than men?  Certainly the real-life political world would pass the Bechtel test, but the media would have you believe otherwise.

Most of the women in our Congress today went to women’s colleges.  Some argue that single-sex institutions are no longer necessary, though I think that they very much are.  While it’s true that many of the things I got at Mount Holyoke I could have gotten at other institutions (top-notch research and internship opportunities, one-on-one support of professors, alumnae networking, etc.), I can’t help but think that these institutions play a role in inspiring women to make a meaningful and lasting change in the world. (One could always argue, against causation, and instead for correlation, saying that historically women’s colleges simply attract the kind of person who would run for public office, but as someone who greatly benefited from the confidence-building campus culture, I am indebted to this institution.)  I don’t think it’s any coincidence that my representative from where I grew up in New York was also an MHC alumna or that Ms. Hayes from The West Wing was a Smith College alumna.

So, you wonder why am I obsessed with this show that belittles women, Seven Sisters Alumnae or not alike?

I think the answer is that it gives a very humanizing glimpse into the political world.  It’s ups and downs, the good, bad, and the ugly – all there!  I am obsessed because I very easily identify with the battles that the women face on The West Wing.  I may laugh at myself for getting so absorbed in the plotlines, but this show lit a fire in my belly.  I have heard the call to get more smart women involved in democracy and cannot shake it.  “Women in public service” will no doubt be a thread that follows me throughout my life, and I am very glad to have Generation Citizen be a jumping off place to explore my role as an increasingly engaged and active citizen.

~Leila Quinn, Greater Boston Program Associate

One of the most fun parts about traveling, for me, is learning about other nations’ image of the United States. They range from the amusing (nobody uses plastic bags for grocery shopping, only blank brown paper bags) to the alarming (nearly everybody in Texas walks around with a gun in his or her back pocket).

These occasional bits aside, I would say that the bulk of opinions fell into two streams: one about our power and the other about our engagement. In regards to the former subject, we are most assuredly the Land of the Plenty and Powerful. We have multiple televisions in one household. Kids receive hefty weekly allowances. Our president is the most powerful man on earth. Our country does what it wants, wherever it wants, whenever it wants.  In regards to the latter, Americans are dumb. We lack self-awareness and are oblivious to the problems of the world. As a country, we bullishly chase our interests. Individually, we don’t even know a lot about our own country and its government.

The question I heard, pondered in many different ways, sometimes only implied, was the following: how could people with so much power, so many resources, the potential to influence so many individuals, living a country with freedom of the press and freedom to assemble, care so little about what is around them?

One could raise the immediate objections and questions. We may or may not be relatively wealthy; we may or may not be intelligent; we may or may not be politically aware. The answers will vary. I have witnessed a very wide spectrum of political engagement and apathy in our country. The question I find more interesting is not whether we’d agree about how much money we have or how much we know and care about the world, but whether we all really feel that powerful.

My guess is no. My guess is that there are many Americans who witness community and structural problems on a daily basis. Change does not appear to be within grasp. It seems disconnected to their actions and distant from their reach. And this is what troubled me most of all when I was abroad. As people in other countries pointed out to me, the United States is a democracy; our country was created to give every person in it a voice and a means of acting on it.  But how powerful do we feel? Enough to defeat gang violence? Malnutrition? Unemployment?

Well, here is why I am so excited to join Generation Citizen. I am witnessing people putting power back where it belongs—with people. A group of 12^th graders work on an internship corps program. Another on food bank donation systems. Another on the implementation of health courses. They are addressing issues that seemed impossibly insurmountable before. That is power.

I look forward to the day when I’m sitting across the coffee table from somebody in Indonesia, or Finland, or Paraguay, and our nation’s actions will have manifested themselves in the world and our image will have aligned itself to that of the country that we have attempted to be since the founding of our state. We may or may not be considered the richest then, or the smartest, but I will agree with them that yes, we are powerful. We are powerful, not speaking as a nation and its status in the world, but as individuals and as citizens who know their real place in society and the agency they carry within them.

~Liza Lopez, Operations Associate

As the Boston manager of an organization that specializes in empowering the powerless, I have a few thoughts about our powerlessness today. Specifically, that we are NOT POWERLESS!

For one, power comes from joining together with others, and I have seen this week so clearly how swiftly and effectively we are able to come together.They may call Bostonians “unfriendly,” but I don’t see it. On Marathon Monday, Boston’s very own holiday, thousands of Bostonians across neighborhoods, across networks, and across campuses gathered together to cheer on our athletes at the finish line. When that incredible day of Bostonian fellowship was marred by horrific tragedy, Boston rallied, and we rallied as a community: we welcomed strangers into our homes, poured out donations, and swiftly came together to organize memorial services and even memorial runs and races. Our solidarity was planned to continue into today, with the organization of a “Wear Boston Day,” in which HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people across Boston committed to wearing Boston clothing and gear (this is now “Wear Boston Weekend,” although many people ARE wearing Boston clothing inside their homes!)

Secondly, residents of a community have power when their civil systems and local decision-makers are responsive to their needs. This week, our police department, our emergency response teams, our transit authority, our mayor, our Governor, and our local media proved themselves attentive, efficient, organized, and legitimately heroic. Our systems are by no means perfect, and far from systemically equitable, but we have a strong foundation. I am proud to be part of an organization that works to increase access and familiarity with these systems, and positions youth to one day become the next generation of civic heroes.

Finally, we are powerful because we have an American education system that is working very very hard to increasingly protect our society from the terrorism we experienced this week. While I am no expert on terrorism, I do know that terrorist violence is often linked to economic marginalization and a radical and selective interpretation of religious texts that overlooks their nuance. In contrast, American educators have more and more been focused on raising critical thinkers who have the skills to be economically successful in the 21^st century world. Our education system, again, is far from perfect, but I am optimistic: every day, I meet fantastic educators and community organizations who are absolutely committed to raising students who can question, comprehend nuance, and succeed in a complex and collaborative world. And I see individual students who emerge from our education system with remarkable skills and self-efficacy, despite their marginalized backgrounds.  I am so honored to be part of this movement that I do believe will one day help our society become free of terrorists.

My fellow Bostonians: stay safe, call your loved ones, wear your Boston clothing, and remember: you are not powerless!

~Gillian Pressman, Greater Boston Program Manager