As the daughter of an elected official, Sydney Lee is no stranger to the political realm. In fact, when she was applying to be an IGNITE Fellow, she was also running for student body president at the same time. Sydney ended up winning the student body president position by the highest margin her university had ever seen, becoming the second Black person to hold that position.
Starting college, Stephanie Nava wanted to do more than just attend classes, she wanted to be involved in her community. She heard about IGNITE through her friend who was a program participant during high school. During her time in college, she and her friend decided to start the first San Antonio chapter at their university. Soon after, Stephanie realized she wanted to be a leader in her community, and applied to become the next San Antonio Fellow.
Activist and organizer Jeneisha Harris is no stranger to being a leader in her community. During her time at the Equity Alliance, the founders of the organization recommended that she apply to the IGNITE Fellowship. Seeing it as a chance to develop her leadership skills and work with other young women, Jeneisha applied and became the first Nashville Fellow. The position quickly developed into a Tennessee Fellowship, as she mobilized women from across the state. “I was especially motivated by the lack of political engagement I saw in those cities and I wanted to be part of the process to help others get involved,” she shares.
After attending the National Young Women Run conference in D.C., Anna Del Castillo felt inspired by seeing other women own their political power. Later on, she and her best friend ended up running for student body president and vice president on campus, and she realized she wanted to join a collective of women running for office or who were interested in leadership. She had continued to stay up to date with IGNITE throughout the school year and decided to reach out.
After learning about the lack of female leadership in politics during a presentation from a previous Fellow, Anais Franco knew what she had to do. “I knew that I wanted to be part of the fight towards gender parity in our political system to help create much needed change in our society.” She applied to become the IGNITE Southern California Fellow, motivated by the idea of creating a space for young leaders to spark change in their communities.
Abriana Kirt wasn’t always interested in politics, but her political journey started soon after the 2016 election -- the first election she was able to vote in. While scrolling through Instagram one day, Abriana stumbled upon some posts by her good friend and previous IGNITE Atlanta Fellow, Kirsten Jackson. As Kirsten continued to post about her work as an IGNITE Fellow, Abriana’s interest in becoming a Fellow herself grew. IGNITE wasn’t in her area at the time, but after a year, the Fellowship opened up in Birmingham and Abriana jumped at the opportunity to become the very first Fellow in the area.
Growing up in Nevada as the child of Afghani-immigrant parents, Saha Salahi always felt as though she was trying to find her sense of self, but didn’t think she’d find herself in politics. “I never thought I would be interested in politics, mostly because I’ve never seen someone like myself in the political realm.” shares Saha.
At IGNITE National, we are learning how to become better allies everyday and want to uplift the voices of our Black community who are leading the way. This blog post contains a list of resources for Black Lives Matter, including educational resources, ways to get involved and more.
Being a digital advocate is a great way to create change using the power of social media. Whether you have 100 followers or 1000 followers, you can use your platform to speak out about issues you’re passionate about and reach people who will in turn engage with the content. Here are some ways you can be a digital advocate, as well as some things to remember about the spaces you’re advocating in.
After working at a law firm for six weeks, Zeenat Yahya realized she wanted to do something different. She applied to work for IGNITE, and after serving as the California Program Coordinator, headed off to grad school to study Education Policy in Washington state. Zeenat wanted to stay engaged with IGNITE, so she transitioned into the role of Seattle Fellow in 2017.