POST GRADUATE ALTERNATIVES

Graduation should not mark the end of your community involvement and civic engagement. Below are some post-grad alternatives that give you the opportunity to continue your service and activism in the future. While you are thinking about your future please consider taking the graduation pledge. Also see our "find a volunteer opportunity" page.

AIESEC
"Aiesec is the world's premiere student-run international organization dedicated to increasing cultural understanding and cooperation through running an international paid-internship program. We help U.S. companies reach out to young business and I.T. professionals in over 700 universities worldwide. We also help U.S. students find paid internships abroad in any of our 80+ member countries. We are currently based in 38 locations in the U.S."


American Jewish World Service
"We provide unique international service opportunities for the Jewish community, enabling Jews to play an active role in the process of meaningful social change. Last year we sent over 300 volunteers to the developing world."


AmeriCorps

VISTA: www.americorps.org/vista/
NCCC: www.americorps.org/nccc/
Promise Fellows: www.americorps.org/promise/

AVODAH—The Jewish Service Corps
"A year-long program combining front-line anti-poverty work, Jewish study, and community building. It provides an opportunity for you to live out and deepen your commitments to Jewish life and social change through a year of work in low-income communities in New York City and Washington, DC."


Best Bets for Student Work Exchange - Center for International Education
"There are numerous opportunities to work abroad as a student or recent graduate through short-term work exchange programs. The Center for International Education's focus is to assist students to find these exchange programs, as opposed to permanent career positions abroad. This page contains links to work abroad related web sites, as well as listings of some of the more well-known programs that exist."


Boston Teacher Residency
"A 12-month teacher preparation program based in the Boston Public Schools. Teacher Residents spend a full academic year (Monday-Thursday) in a Boston Public School, working closely with a Master Teacher. During their time in schools, Residents serve as another adult in the classroom whose job is to raise the academic achievement of all the students."


Campaign Corps
"Campaign Corps is a national grassroots organization dedicated to politically empowering young people. We recruit, train, and place recent college graduates as paid staffers on targeted, progressive Democratic campaigns throughout the country. Each year, 30 to 40 staffers will be selected to participate in the program with all expenses paid. The program kicks off with an intense, week-long Campaign School in Washington, DC, in July. During the day, participants learn about all aspects of campaigns-voter targeting, field organizing, fundraising, media strategy, and more-from the best political professionals in the business. At night, participants work in teams and apply their knowledge hands-on in a 'real-world' campaign simulation.  Participants are then placed on targeted campaigns as paid members of the campaign staff for the last three months before the election. Staffers have held positions from field operative to fundraiser to researcher, press secretary and even campaign manager."


Catholic Network of Volunteer Services
"a non-profit organization established in 1963, has as its Mission to be a bridge between people thinking about volunteering and member programs, over 230 of which offer volunteer opportunities."

City Year
"City Year, an Americorps national service program, brings together young people ages 17 to 24 from diverse backgrounds for a challenging 10-months of service focusing on civic leadership, team building and mobilizing citizens to civic action."


Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO) Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program (MAAP)
"...brings together motivated activists of color for seven weeks to learn the art of organizing. Graduates receive help in getting jobs in community or labor organizations fighting for justice. Reserve your space in the movement today!"


Colegio Los Nogales Native Speakers Teachers Program
"Colegio Los Nogales Native Speakers Teachers Program gives qualified applicants the chance to travel to Colombia and teach at a bilingual school. Participants receive spanish language instruction while there but teach in english. Housing is provided."


Council Exchanges
"Through Council Exchanges World of opportunity you can work abroad, join a student exchange, volunteer overseas, or teach English in a foreign country."


Crowley Fellow in International Human Rights (Fordham Law School)
The Crowley Program is designed to raise human rights awareness in the law school community, to encourage students to develop their interest in international human rights and to give students and alumni the opportunity to engage directly in human rights lawyering. The Program's core elements include an annual student fact-finding mission to another country, a human rights lecture and brown bag series and raising awareness of human rights issues in the law school community. The students (the Crowley Scholars) involved in the mission participate in course work, independent research, assist in planning the mission, and work with the Crowley Fellow to write a post-mission report/law review article for the Fordham International Law Journal. The Crowley Program is administered by a fellow who is a law school graduate. The fellowship is a 13 month, full-time position, beginning in mid-August 2004 and ending in October 2005. Compensation is comparable with other post-J.D. public interest fellowships and includes benefits.


DART Training Institute
"The DART Organizers Institute is a paid, field school for those wishing to pursue a career in community organizing. The Organizers Institute includes a seven-day classroom workshop with veteran organizers from the field, and up to 15-weeks of in-field training with a local organization. Graduates from the DART Organizers Institute will join dozens of other successful organizers as fulltime, salaried staff members working to build the power of low-income communities throughout the country in their struggles for justice and equality."


Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program - Antioch New England Graduate School
"Pushing the next wave of the environmental movement will require talented, scientifically-grounded, and politically-savvy activists working to tame the global economy; promote democratic reform of our political system; build new coalitions for innovative programs in ecological and community renewal; and create a new moral climate that combines a deep ecological concern with a strong commitment to social justice. At the end of two years, you will have earned more than a Master's degree in Environmental Studies, you will have developed the confidence, connections, skills, and insights, to make a significant long-term contribution to the field of environmental advocacy and organizing."

Environmental Leadership Training Program
"Can you imagine yourself running a campaign to defend old growth forests from corporate logging companies, protecting local communities from pesticides, or starting your own environmental group? Green Corps' one-year, full-time, paid Environmental Leadership Training Program gives you the best training available to launch an organizing and advocacy career."

Global Volunteer Network
We place people in community projects in China, Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal, Romania, Russia, Thailand, and Uganda. Volunteers have the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational, environmental and community aid programs. Examples of the exciting and rewarding activities available to volunteers include teaching English, environmental work, health and sanitation, and cultural home stays.


Global Service Corps
"is a nonprofit international volunteer organization that provides volunteer opportunities for people worldwide to live and work abroad in developing countries. We care about people. We care about the earth. We learn and we teach."

Green Corps (Field School for Environmental Organizing)
"Green Corps' mission is to teach the next generation of environmental leaders the strategies and skills they'll need to win tomorrow's environmental battles while providing critical field support for today's pressing environmental problems. Since our inception, we have trained thousands of young people in the skills of organizing and advocacy, led more than 50 critical environmental campaigns, and helped launch the careers of 150 Green Corps graduates currently holding positions of leadership in the environmental and social change movement."


Jesuit Volunteer Corps
"provides room/board, stipend, loan deferment, and health insurance for recent grads to live in community and work in community service for one year. Also international opportunities for 3 years in developing countries."


Jewish Coalition for Service
"Check out 40 full-time volunteer programs for people aged 15 through post-retirement. Volunteer for one week to one year in the U.S., Israel, and other countries throughout the world. Also find jobs, internships, and resources for Jewish service learning."


The Jewish Organizing Initiative (JOI)
"JOI is looking for Jewish young adults who are interested in working for social justice and social change as part of a Jewish community that values Jewish learning, relationship building, and justice. In this one-year fellowship, we offer opportunities for paid (plus health benefits) full-time work as organizers in social justice community organizations in the Boston area, as well as organizing training and Jewish community building."


Lutheran Volunteer Corps
"In LVC communities of 4 to 7, volunteers share meals, household responsibilities, daily struggles, faith discussions, and good times. Building and maintaining a supportive community offers a rewarding experience. The quality and commitment of LVC friendships can last a lifetime."


The Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers (MINT)
"...is an intensive teacher preparation program that provides a unique opportunity for the most qualified and motivated recent college graduates and mid-career professionals to make an immediate impact in the classrooms where they are most needed. MINT participants earn their Massachusetts teaching credentials - an Initial (stage 2) license - through an intensive summer training institute, followed by an on-going support and assessment program during their first year as a teacher of record in a public school."


Mercy Volunteer Corps
"Mercy Volunteer Corps is a program of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas that invites women and men to a year or two of full-time service with people who are economically poor or marginalized. Volunteers commit to compassionate service, a simple lifestyle in community, and spiritual growth."


National Mentoring Partnership
"A mentor is an adult who, along with parents, provides young people with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and constructive example. Mentors are good listeners, people who care, people who want to help young people bring out strengths that are already there. As a mentor, you can help connect children with the other four America's Promise Fundamental Resources: safe places and structured activities during non-school hours, a healthy start, a marketable skill through effective education and an opportunity to give back through community service."


Peace Brigades International
"a non-governmental organization (NGO) which protects human rights and promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts. When invited, we send teams of volunteers into areas of repression and conflict. The volunteers accompany human rights defenders, their organizations and others threatened by political violence."


PeaceCorps
"Peace Corps Volunteers serve in 71 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, and the Middle East. Collaborating with local community members, Volunteers work in areas like education, youth outreach and community development, the environment, and information technology."


Post-Graduate Service Opportunities
A categorized list of opportunities provided by the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame.


Project OTZMA
"Project OTZMA is a ten-month volunteer program in Israel. If you are looking for a challenging, educational, and hard-working experience, then check out Project OTZMA. Started 15 years ago, this program is designed for recent college graduates (ages 20-25) and gives participants an opportunity to live and work in a variety of settings throughout Israel."


Projects Abroad
"With Projects Abroad you can enjoy adventurous foreign travel with a chance to do a worthwhile job. Placements are available throughout the year and last from one month upwards."


Public Allies
"Through our core program, Public Allies advances the skills, networks and experience of diverse young leaders as they strengthen communities, nonprofits and civic participation. Public Allies selects our communities' most promising young leaders who commit to a rigorous and rewarding ten-month program of full-time, paid apprenticeships in community orginizations, team service projects and weekly leadership training."


Sapientis
"Sapientis is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the short and long-term socio-economic development of Latin America and the Caribbean by launching the region's premier education and leadership organization. Sapientis develops future leaders by recruiting outstanding recent college graduates and graduating seniors to teach for two years in Puerto Rico's public schools as regularly paid K-12th grade teachers. Sapientis provides members with the training and support necessary to be effective teachers and successful leaders as they become part of movement dedicated to ensuring that all youth in Latin America and the Caribbean receive a quality education."


Strategic Corporate Research Summer School
New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University. A special summer program for undergraduate and graduate students interested in working in the labor movement. Co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO.


Teach For America
"The national corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to expand opportunity for children. Each year, Teach For America selects a corps of nearly 2,000 individuals, provides them extensive training during summer institutes, places them as full-time, paid teachers in urban and rural public schools, and coordinates an ongoing network to support them during their two years as teachers and beyond."


United Way Community Fellows Program
"The Community Fellows Program offers recent college graduates an extraordinary opportunity to work for United Way, one of the most recognized philanthropic non-profit organizations in the nation. Becoming a successful Fellow in the program provides committed professionals a unique opportunity to improve the lives of others and launch a career with United Way."


Vincentian Volunteer Corps
"The Vincentian Service Corps is a faith-based service organization. Our members serve in Vincentian ministries, such as healthcare, social services, and many schools and educational programs to improve the lives of those in need."


Volunteers for Peace International Workcamps
"Over 2400 affordable ($200-$400) international voluntary service programs in 90+ countries"


Windsor Mountain Student Travel
"Located in New Hampshire, Windsor Mountain International seeks to provide educational Student Travel experiences that open minds, foster personal growth, and help students respond to cultural, social, and environmental challenges as responsible citizens of the world."