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Highlights from:"Finding Jobs in Human Rights and Advocacy" November 3, 2003 • Stefan Presser, Legal Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania • Amanda Joseph, Tzedec Director, The Shefa Fund • Jen Geiger, Program Director, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Legal Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania • Career Path: Stefan’s career in human rights and advocacy work with the ACLU began while he was an undergraduate student and conscientious objector at Yale during the Vietnam War. He attended NYU law school which at that time was the most well endowed public interest law program in the nation. (Currently Stefan oversees Temple’s public interest law program.) During law school, Stefan interned at the ACLU and gained excellent experience there. As a new attorney, he hoped to continue this work, but the only opening at the ACLU was a position in Houston, Texas as Legal Director. So, he moved south and worked for several years at this ACLU branch focusing on death row and free speech cases. When a position opened in Pennsylvania for Legal Director, Stefan accepted and moved back to the northeast. He holds this position currently and continues as a legal advocate on cases involving human rights and free speech issues. • Job Search Advice: * Get your foot in the door of the organization you want to work for! Volunteering is a great way to begin, as there are many opportunities for volunteers to become involved in significant work at nonprofit and advocacy organizations. * There are numerous opportunities -- especially after a first year of law school -- to do public interest research work. * Undergraduates can get involved by doing research for an organization during the school year. This can be an excellent way to gain valuable experience and network in the community. * “Go to law school or do not go to law school.” Both are good choices but the decision should be well thought out beforehand. * Direct action [in contrast to legal work, in his opinion] is the way to go. It can be put to use immediately and have a direct impact on policy or social change. Shefa Fund, Tzedec Director • Career Path: Amanda graduated from Bryn Mawr with a major in Urban Studies. Following graduation, she took a job in a museum in New York but was not there long because her work did not connect her to the types of issues she was most interested in working on. She spent the following year in Israel working as part of the peace movement. When she returned to the US, she took advantage of networks she had developed through Bryn Mawr and her professional experience. Her next job was in fundraising. Amanda worked for the Audobon Society in a development position that allowed her to gain exposure to both the national and local levels of the organization. She devoted her spare time to her main passion – working for peace. She dedicated a great deal of time and energy to Americans for Peace Now, an Israeli peace organization, where she eventually held the position of Program Administrator for three years. Soon Amanda realized that she needed to develop her skills further in order to do the type of work she was most interested in doing. She decided to go to graduate school in the field she would have least expected – business. Getting an MBA was a way for her to “create justice in [her] own way.” At Yale’s business school, she found exceptional opportunities to join public interest and NGO efforts with work in the private sector. Yale’s loan forgiveness program was an important factor in her selection of the program. Her first job as a new MBA grad was at Self-Help Credit Union, a nonprofit community development credit union in Greensboro, NC, where she was a Commercial Loan Officer responsible for commercial lending activity, marketing and outreach in a thirteen-county area.Joseph also served on the board of MELP (Micro Enterprise Loan Program) in Winston-Salem and on the Advisory Board of the Small Business Center at GTCC (Guilford Technical Community College), and she was involved with the activities of the Greensboro Jewish Federation. She enjoyed the opportunity to use her business skills directly and to work for an organization with such a strong sense of mission. • Job Search Advice: * One great thing about the nonprofit sector is that you will be useful wherever you dedicate your time and energy. Use your time at Penn to experience and experiment as much as you can. Learn about what’s out there. * At a certain point in one’s career, focusing on a specific issue or job can be an option, but it can be helpful to keep in mind that all organizations need good speakers and writers and people who can manage budgets. * Take advantage of your networks and go on lots of informational interviews. Take in as much information as you can about your field of interest. * Fundraising is an extremely important skill to have and talent to contribute in the nonprofit and human rights sector. * What motivates you? What inspires you to act? Think about what it is you want to accomplish and what changes you want to see happening in the world. Use your answers and thoughts to direct you toward fields of interest, opportunities for informational interviews, and potential employers. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Program Director • Career Path: Jen has been involved with volunteering and nonprofit organizations throughout her life. She is originally from Portland, Oregon and attended Williams, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts. She entered college with plans of becoming a high school teacher, but as she got involved in political organizations on campus, especially Amnesty International, she changed her mind. The summer after her junior year, she applied for and received a fellowship that provided funding for doing work related to government. She used this opportunity to obtain an internship at the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, an experience she found very valuable because interns play a vital role in NCADP’s work. She found it to be a fantastic opportunity to meet interesting people. For instance, her first day on the job, she attended a congressional hearing and was called upon to introduce some congress members to an audience. Jen worked very hard at NCADP and did anything that was needed from photocopying to research. After college, Jen took a job with the NCADP as a Development Assistant. Just a few months into her position, her boss’s position was vacated and Jen became the Development Director, a very challenging role for a new college graduate. She worked 16 hour days trying to learn as much as possible on the spot about how to do her job. While this was quite a challenging experience, it taught her a great deal about managing a nonprofit organization. After a couple years, Jen applied for and accepted her current position as Program Director at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. This organization works on a wide variety of human rights issues, including disarmament, corporate justice, civil liberties, women’s rights, and peace. Again, Jen found herself learning quickly on the spot – the organization had not had a Program Director for 6 months prior to her arrival. She rapidly learned how to manage budgets, design the organization’s web pages, and provide public presentations. Jen is very happy in her current position because she is doing what she loves and what she wants to be doing with her time. • Job Search Advice: * One of the best things about work in the field of human rights is its breadth. There is a wide variety of issues to address and settings in which to advocate for social issues. * Take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you and create your own. There are many interesting organizations that would value highly the contributions of interns and the assistance of volunteers. * It’s not hard to get your foot in the door: volunteer, do informational interviews, build on the contacts you already have. * This field allows for rapid advancement opportunities. Q: What do you wish you could have known going into this field? A: -- As an attorney working to defend civil liberties, I wish I’d had a better sense of what it is like to deal with federal judges. They have a very different understanding of the constitution than I do, and I had many disappointing experiences of feeling betrayed by the very people who were supposed to be upholding the rights I was working to defend. (Stefan) -- Four things come to mind: (1) Nonprofits really struggle internally sometimes because resources are tight. This can create tension within and among organizations. (2) In addition, I have become very conscious of living out the actions that we preach. It is challenging to suggest that certain changes be made in the world and to maintain a commitment to incorporating these same changes into one’s own life. (3) Charismatic leaders are not always good organizers. It’s important to have a healthy mix of dynamic leadership and detail-oriented organizers and managers in nonprofit organizations. (4) A key piece of nonprofit management is learning how to channel idealism effectively. (Amanda) -- Sometimes, no matter how hard you work, you’re not going to win. The U.S. still goes to war, an execution still takes place, and nuclear weapons are still manufactured. It’s important to deal with it and move on. On the positive side, this process, year in and year out, reveals amazing commitment and determination on the part of your colleagues. (Jen) Q: In a down economy, how do you make / find opportunities in this field? A: -- Look into internship funds for grants to do the work you want to do. There are programs out there that will provide a stipend for the summer for you to work as an unpaid intern at a nonprofit organization. There are always staffing needs in the nonprofit world. Keep looking and you will find something, especially with your qualifications. The choices are yours to make. This is a great time in life to experiment and learn what’s out there. Try not to turn down opportunities if at all possible. Be willing to move or be flexible. Know how to work fellowships and internships. Get your foot in the door. The nonprofit arena is a small community and people take care of one another. Consider serving as a board member for a nonprofit. (Amanda) -- Your first job or two might not be so sexy but you will learn a great deal about the issue at hand and about office skills in general. (Jen) -- Another thought: an old quotation says, “Ours is not to complete the work of the world, but ours is not to desist from it.” Success can sometimes be incremental, both in one’s own efforts and in the work of peace and justice. Opportunities exist if we keep looking and working toward them. (Amanda)
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