Next year
So, I was accepted to LVC for next year. It's a program that focuses on the following three tenets: social justice, intentional community and simplicity. You work in a non-profit organization that deals in some way with social justice. Your food, housing, transportation, and health insurance are provided, but you're paid very little and you live in a house with other volunteers. (It's also spiritual in an inter-faith, educational way.) It's appealing because it's kind of a halfway point between college and the real world: the volunteers tend to be recent college grads and have similar social justice values. It's probably the most tangible option I have right now, and has a good success rate with Grinnellians. Two of my good friends have also already been accepted.
I'm looking a long list of options that I have to narrow down to 9 by Monday. Then I'll get 3 interviews and they/I pick from there. Here are my options so far for those 9:
Advocates for Human Rights, Program Assitant, Client Intake/Outreach, Twin Cities
Latin America Working Group (WOLA's sister organization), Program Assistant, DC
Jubilee USA Network, Advocacy, DC
Lutheran World Relief, Program Asst, Communications & Experiential Learning, Baltimore
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Asst. Organizer for Silence the Violence, Bay Area
Lutheran Social Service of MN, Refugee Services Case Manager/Immigrant Assistant, Twin Cities
National Council of La Raza, Research/Policy Analysis Fellow, DC
Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Services, Legislative Assistant, DC
Centro Legal de la Raza, Community Legal Advocate, Bay Area
La Raza Centro Legal, Day Labor Program and Asset Development Asst., Bay Area
City South Cluster Ministries, Volunteer Coordinator/Church Relations Liaison, Twin Cities
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay, Education Paralegal, Bay Area
Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Services Assistant to Access to Justice Unit, Baltimore
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, Communications Assistant,Baltimore
La Raza Centro Legal, Senior Law Legal Assistant (elderly, disabilities), Bay Area
These all, as you can tell, deal in some way with immigrants, human rights, international issues, legal services and/or advocacy. It's difficult to pick because I don't know if I should pick based on my ultimate career goals and where I would find it most comfortable/familiar to live, or if I should try something totally new and different. On the one hand, this might be my only chance to live on the West Coast, but on the other, if I know what I like, why take the gamble, especially for my first year after school? Either way, it's okay because they're all good choices and I'll have a built-in community no matter what, but I still don't know how to narrow down for Monday.