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AFSCME Union Scholars Build the Future of Labor

Photo courtesy AFSCME Education Department
AFSCME Union Scholars Build the Future of Labor
By Ray Inoue ·
Tags: Momentum

AFSCME is investing in the future through the Union Scholars Program, which introduces college students from marginalized communities to the labor movement.

That includes students like Nicole Hamm, a senior at the University of Central Florida. Growing up in tropical suburbia in Naples, Florida, Hamm organized for her Student Labor Action Project chapter at school. Still, she never imagined that her passion for local social and economic justice would allow her to do important organizing work throughout the country. But it has.

Last summer, she was an organizer at AFSCME Council 5 in St. Paul, Minnesota. She spent this summer as an Organizing and Field Services intern at AFSCME in Washington D.C.  

“I’m really happy with this program. I learned so much about labor organizing through amazing mentors and exciting campaigns,” Hamm said. “I’m much more optimistic about pursuing my passions after working with AFSCME.”

AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Elissa McBride said the program provides excellent value for our union.

“The Union Scholars Program is an amazing resource for students and our union,” she said. “Students of color sharpen their organizing skills and learn about the labor movement, and AFSCME recruits talented young organizers to help us fight for justice in the workplace.”

For 14 years, the Union Scholars Program has allowed college juniors and seniors of color to embark on a 10-week summer field placement within AFSCME. Students are immersed within a strong organizing campaign, where they are paired with expert mentors.

Among other benefits, the program provides a stipend, on-site housing, travel costs and an academic scholarship of up to $6,300. Students also receive a first-class education in the labor movement through a weeklong training session at Harvard University’s Trade Union program.

The application process begins in the fall for the following summer. The website and application will be relaunched at that time, so those interested should visit afscme.org to apply.

“The thing that drew me into labor was its centrality in so many different issues, such as housing or health care,” explained Dagan Brown, a senior from Columbia University who is currently a union scholar for AFSCME Council 979 in Florida. “Labor unions not only create benefits for working people, but they’re related to almost every category in social justice. So it’s a useful tool to leverage the people at the top to fight for those we represent.”  

Grooming young people to lead the future of the labor movement is crucial to ensuring that working families are represented fairly and justly in the workplace. That’s why the Union Scholars Program is specifically tailored to train student organizers to find jobs with labor unions. Judging by the large number of past scholars who’ve found careers in labor, the program has been effective. 

Karen Li, a former Union Scholar from Cornell University, was able to tie her activist sensibilities to the labor movement through the program. She now works full time in Organizing and Field Services at AFSCME headquarters and intends to stay in labor for the rest of her life.  

“At first, I didn’t consider my passions in social and racial justice to be something I could have a career in,” said Li. “I thought I was going to go into academia and do that on the side. But after the Union Scholars Program and being introduced to labor, I’m glad I found a career in something I was really passionate about.”

Editor’s note: Ray Inoue, a 2016-2017 Union Scholar, is a senior at the University of California-Santa Cruz. He spent the summer of 2016 as an organizing apprentice at AFSCME Council 5 (Minnesota) and the summer of 2017 as a communications apprentice at AFSCME International.

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