IGNITE's Blog

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. 

Meet the 4th cohort of IGNITE Fellows. Every year IGNITE recruits a cohort of diverse and passionate women in communities across America and provides them with resources, training, and networks to flex their political power and mobilize women on their campuses and in their communities to become civically engaged. Fellows serve as ambassadors for IGNITE’s mission and vision and play a valuable role in our efforts to spread a national message that it is time for young women to step into political power.

The constant assault on our Black community must stop. At IGNITE, we support the #BlackLivesMatter movement. We will do what it takes to amplify the voices of Black women and men of all ages, and especially our IGNITE program participants and alumni who are leading protests and making concrete recommendations for systemic change in response to the deep racism in this country. We stand in solidarity with our youth leaders and their solutions. 

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. 

If you’ve been thinking about getting involved in politics by working on a campaign, we’re here to help! Working on a campaign is a great way to get more women in elected office and can be a really rewarding experience regardless of the outcome. There are a lot of moving parts to a campaign, so we’ve created this guide to help you campaign like a boss. 

As a child of Ethiopian immigrants, IGNITE Minnesota Fellow Raie Gessesse saw firsthand how politics can impact people. “My life has been a product of policy decisions and always had a relationship to how political leaders have structured society,” she shares. Though she never saw herself running for office when she was younger, attending IGNITE events showed her that to make a change in her community, she had to get political.