Advocacy Fellowship

This fellowship has been very beneficial to helping me achieve my life goals as I want to work in government or advocacy after graduation. It has given me much appreciated experience in the field and helped me develop professionally.

One of my biggest goals coming into the internship was gaining a broader, practical understanding of the nonprofit sector. I wanted to be able to take what I learned in my nonprofit classes and apply them in a real-life setting. I also wanted to gain exposure to areas of a nonprofit that I had not previously considered before. I was able to accomplish each of these things to a T. The nonprofit calls I sat in on broadened my understand of the nonprofit sector as a whole and my weekly meetings with food bank staffers allowed me to see the actual structure of the food banks and how they all work together .

I’ve always had an interest in food security. However, my time volunteering and other experiences have always been tied to ‘feeding the line’ efforts. During my time as a fellow, I’ve gained a better understanding of how public policy and advocacy can help change the landscape around food security and ultimately shorten the line. The fellowship has allowed me to learn more about legislative processes and overall, how advocacy at the state and federal level has the potential to make a positive impact on Oklahomans fighting hunger.

When I came into my internship I didn’t know what advocacy meant in a professional space. I learned that nonprofit and advocacy work bridges all majors and no matter what skills or background you bring to it, there is a place for you to help others and live out your passions. I learned more than I could describe in one paragraph but to summarize, I now have a good foundation on how to advocate for myself and the causes I care about. Furthermore, how to do it effectively and the power of simply reaching out to my lawmakers.