Youth Organizing Fellowship
August 2026 - July 2027
Americans United’s Youth Organizing Fellowship is a paid opportunity to grow as a leader, build power with youth organizers from across the country, and advocate for the separation of church and state and inclusive religious freedom, including the issues that depend on them like abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, strong public schools and a functioning democracy. The next round of applications will open in early 2027.
Overview
This Fellowship is right for you if you are already an activist in your community and want to dive deeper into advocacy for separation of church and state. You should bring some knowledge and experience but also be excited to learn more. AU’s Youth Organizing Fellows come from diverse backgrounds, share AU’s values of freedom without favor and equality without exception, and have a wide range of experience with advocacy and organizing.
Fellows must be able to commit 5-10 hours per month to organizing with Americans United and be excited to work in collaboration with youth activists from across the country to engage their peers and wider community. Fellows will receive a $1,600 stipend, attend up to two conferences (fully paid for), and gain access to support and resources to organize in your community.
The fellowship will kick off with a long weekend in Washington, DC in August. During this intensive convening, Fellows learn key information and advocacy skills and begin planning for the rest of the year. Fellows will continue to meet twice per month by video, as a group and one-on-one with the program manager, for ongoing training and support.
Skills you can expect to gain or strengthen during the Fellowship:
- Deep understanding of the separation of church and state
- Advocacy and organizing skills
Event planning and project planning skills - Collaboration with people of different faith traditions and none
- Effective communication and public speaking
Fellows are expected to use the information, skills, and resources they gain to raise awareness and educate their communities about the importance of church-state separation, and activate members of their communities to take action. During the Fellowship, you’ll get to build a plan for what your advocacy will look like in partnership with AU staff and other Fellows. Some examples of what past Fellows have worked on include writing about topics such as fighting for trans rights, church-state separation in schools, and book bans; tabling in their communities; hosting panels, speakers, documentary screenings, and other events on topics such as religious freedom in the criminal justice system, reproductive freedom, and LGBTQ+ rights; lobbying their elected officials; and more. See below for the full list of responsibilities.
People of color, LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, low-income people, and others who are directly impacted by and from communities disproportionately impacted by white Christian nationalism are especially encouraged to apply.
Timeline
Application Process
May 2026 (TBA)
(Optional) Info Session for Applicants.
Monday, June 1
Applications close.
Week of June 8
Group video interviews with select applicants; exact date and time to be confirmed.
All applicants will be notified whether they advance to the interview stage.
By July 2
Decisions announced to applicants.
Fellowship
Week of August 3
Virtual 1:1 with program manager.
Wednesday, August 12
Travel to Washington, DC
Thursday, August 13 - Sunday, August 16
Meet in DC for three days of community-building and training.
(Fellows will also travel home on Sunday)
September 2026 - July 2027
- Monthly virtual cohort meetings on weekday evenings
- Monthly virtual 1:1 meetings with supervisor
- Fellows organize in their communities (see responsibilities below)
April 2027
Attend the Summit for Religious Freedom in Washington D.C.
AU is committed to making the Fellowship accessible to all. If you would benefit from captioning, an interpreter, or other accommodations during the application process, please reach out. We will also strive to accommodate all our Fellows’ needs to participate in virtual meetings and in-person events.
Details of the fellowship
Your Responsibilities as a Fellow
- Contribute approximately 5-10 hours total to AU per month.
- Attend the in-person convening in Washington, DC from August 13-16
- Meet at least twice monthly on video calls, once as a full group and once 1:1 with the program manager. Fellows are expected to actively share, learn, and collaborate during group meetings, which will typically consist of collaborative work time and/or skill-building workshops.
- Be a self-starter, willing and able to organize and work remotely in your community in between meetings with AU.
- Meet 1:1 with members of your communities and serve as an ambassador for AU and church-state separation.
- Write and/or record public communications (such as blog posts, social media content, and letters to the editor)
- Organize at least two events or activities in your community (such as tabling, community gatherings and discussions, panels and webinars, meeting with elected officials, etc.)
- Attend the Summit for Religious Freedom and an additional external conference related to the Fellowship (Fellows work with AU to identity a conference where they can both learn and represent AU; this is encouraged but not required)
Your Resources as a Fellow
- $1,600 stipend, provided in two payments in March and August 2027
- Full coverage of the cost of travel, housing, and meals to participate in the YOF convening in August in Washington, DC
- Full coverage of the cost of travel, housing, and meals to participate in the Summit for Religious Freedom from April 2027 in the Washington, DC area and at least one other conference on behalf of AU
- Mentorship, skills training, and other support from AU staff
- How-to training and guides, messaging resources, online tools like event forms and petitions, and other organizing and advocacy tools to support your projects
- Access to platforms to share your writing (or other content) including AU’s blog and social media
- AU staff to speak, present, or run a training in your community
- Slack channel to communicate and collaborate with each other
Eligibility
- Age 18-25 at the start of the program (August 1, 2026)
- Living in the United States, including the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories
Qualifications
- Experience working across differences and in collaboration with diverse leaders or groups
- Experience with advocacy or organizing
- Ability to work independently
- Enthusiasm to learn
- Demonstrated leadership. “Leadership is accepting responsibility to create conditions that enable others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty” – Marshall Ganz
- Basic knowledge of church-state separation
- Commitment to attend the convening in Washington, DC in
- August and participate in the full year-long program
- Access to the internet and a device with video for virtual meetings
Apply for the Youth Organizing Fellowship Today!
The deadline to apply is 11:59PM PT on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Meet Current and Past Fellows
Youth Organizing Fellows live across the country – in large, small, urban, rural, east coast, west coast, midwest, and southern communities.
These ambassadors for church-state separation plan events and activities to educate and mobilize members of their communities to take action to protect everyone’s right to live as themselves and believe as they choose. Meet our current fellows and the past cohorts who led the way.
2025-2026 cohort creating a social media reel with AU CEO and President Rachel Laser at the annual convening in Washington D.C.
Rani Balakrishna
Rani Balakrishna
Rani Balakrishna (she/her) is a 2025 graduate of Brandeis University, where she studied Politics, Journalism, and Spanish. A student government leader and varsity softball player, Rani is strongly interested in using her advocacy and organizing skills to work in government and politics to help people.
Alan Chen
Alan Chen
Alan Chen (he/him) graduated from Columbia University in May 2025 with a B.A. in history and philosophy. Raised in a single-parent household, he is interested in child care, marital protections, public education, and the child welfare system. Alan currently works for the New York City Independent Budget Office as a New York City Urban Fellow, supporting the agency’s nonpartisan research and review of the City’s social services and education policies.
Daniel Geary
Daniel Geary
Daniel Geary (he/him) is a senior undergraduate student at the University of Tulsa studying Political Science and Economics. Daniel is very involved in organizing students on campus, working with YDSA and Students For Justice in Palestine to promote broader transparency with the university and to educate students about injustices and the power that workers have. At AU, Daniel hopes to build on his organizing potential and spread awareness for the discrimination felt by LGBTQ+ teachers and students within the Oklahoma education system.
Ishan Kanaskar
Ishan Kanaskar
Ishan Kanaskar is from San Antonio, Texas, and studies Government and Plan II Honors at the University of Texas at Austin. After working in the Texas Legislature and seeing firsthand how policy decisions shape issues of rights and equity, Ishan became passionate about protecting the separation of church and state. He hopes to continue promoting inclusive and constitutional governance through advocacy and public service.
Imani Laird
Imani Laird
Imani Laird is pursuing a BA in Political Science at Hampton University. She aspires to a career in law or public service and, through this fellowship advocating against White Christian nationalism, seeks to expand her advocacy to the national level.
Sabene Rizvi
Sabene Rizvi
Sabene Rizvi (She/They) is a fourth-year triple major in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Political Science (pre-law) at Purdue Fort Wayne, focusing on safe, equitable access to reproductive healthcare and the intersection of AI with social justice. She has applied this interdisciplinary focus on campus by leading advocacy with Generation Action and Every Campus A Refuge. In these roles, she has distributed thousands of menstrual and emergency contraception kits and co-developed digital resource-accessibility platforms for low-income, immigrant, and refugee families.
