Student Internship in Political Advocacy for Community Colleges
The Political Action Committee of the Foothill-‐De Anza Faculty Association (FAPAC) is hiring between 5 and 10 student interns for the coming year. If you are a student in the Foothill-‐De Anza District with a passion for justice, a desire to develop political organizing and advocacy skills, and a commitment to putting these skills to use fighting for community colleges, this is an important opportunity for you!
The Foothill-De Anza Faculty Association (commonly referred to as FA) is a locally governed, independent labor union incorporated in 1977, which represents both full-‐time and part-‐time faculty from Foothill College and De Anza College. The FA Political Action Committee (FAPAC) is the political arm of the union. Over the past three years, FAPAC student interns have fought for, and won, increases in the minimum wage, massive increases in funding for community colleges locally and statewide, and strong political representation in our state legislature. Interns have organized student trainings and advocacy trips involving hundreds of FHDA students, have participated in legislative lobbying and other grassroots political advocacy work, and have developed unique and powerful social media tools that are being used all over the state to fight for community college students.
Expectations
As an intern, you will be part of a team of students from both Foothill and De Anza Colleges. We will train you in core political organizing and advocacy skills and put you to work both on campus and in the community helping to build a movement to improve the lives and working conditions of community college students and faculty locally, regionally, and throughout the state.
Interns are expected to participate in a weekly FA-‐PAC team meeting and then to commit between 3 and 6 additional working hours each week depending upon specific projects the team is working on. In periods of peak campaign activity, the time commitment may increase to as much as 10-‐19 hours, but this would only be for short bursts of time during a given quarter. In addition, interns are required to participate in two separate political organizer/advocacy training programs for which they will be compensated for 5 hours of time each– a “Campus Camp Wellstone” training (Bay Area, early February) and the Advocacy and Policy Conference of the Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges (Sacramento, early March). This internship provides flexible hours for students but will challenge interns depending on how much they invest themselves into it.
Responsibilities and tasks would include but are not limited to:
- Attendance at designated times for weekly meetings
- Collaboration with other Foothill and De Anza FA-‐PAC interns
- Coordination with FA-‐PAC advisors
- Keep weekly timesheets updated
- Work with other FHDA students and faculty for organizing campaign efforts
- Promote awareness of FA PAC and projects among student bodies
- Organize FHDA student delegations for Faculty Association of California Community Colleges’ (FACCC) annual Advocacy and Policy (A&P) Conference and the Campus Camp Wellstone Training
- Engage in electoral or other political campaigns to support PAC-‐endorsed candidates and issues (signature gathering, voter registration, phone-‐banking, precinct walking, public presentations in classrooms, clubs and in publics paces, use social media, etc.)
- Keep detailed records of voter and volunteer contacts
- Recruit and supervise volunteers
- Schedule and participate in legislative visits with local elected officials
- Recruit new interns for the following year
- Other duties as assigned
Wages & Length of Service
$16.75/hour
flexible hours and college internship credit available
Internship Period: One year