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Justice Matters Institute is a San Francisco-based nonprofit
that offers a leadership training program for college students
committed to social justice issues. Through this program,
we learned about the many barriers that college students face
as they pursue making a contribution through meaningful life
work. This report documents these barriers and puts forth
solutions. We gathered information through interviews with
students from our program, as well as interviews with staff
on college campuses and other people with expertise related
to our focus. We also reviewed related studies and other literature.
We found that college students encountered three types of
obstacles to pursuing work that enables them to make meaningful
social contributions:
- Lack of Resources – this lack includes insufficient
support on campus for exploring these kinds of careers,
as well as the problem of low salaries in the nonprofit
world
- Nowhere to Turn, No One to Trust - the resources that
did exist lacked relevance, trustworthiness, and credibility
- Dilemmas After Graduation - discouraging incidents in the
work world raised further difficulties.
The report examines a variety of programs, each of which
contains seeds of a solution for effectively connecting young
idealists with meaningful life work. These programs address
how to build youthful idealism into a lasting commitment:
being “in it for life.”
Justice Matters Institute’s Community Fellows
Program
This program for college student activists helps them overcome
many of the barriers they encounter on campus. It provides
validation for their aspirations; it helps them reconcile
career options with values and integrity; it provides a sufficiently
trustworthy and intensive resource; and it helps them to re-establish
their sense of hope and will to persist. Of the Justice Matters
“Fellows” who are out of school and working, 96%
hold jobs in which they are making a social contribution.
Public Service and Civic Engagement Initiatives in
Higher Education
These initiatives help make college campuses places that support
students in serving the community and becoming active citizens,
yet have not done well in supporting two key groups: students
of color and students committed to social justice issues.
These groups—students of color passionate about making
a difference in the issues that affect their communities,
as well as students of all races with a developed commitment
to a just and fair society—bring great energy and commitment
to addressing social problems. While we must learn how these
initiatives have been effective, we also must explore the
ways in which they fail to reach important groups of young
idealists.
Conservative Organizations
These well-funded organizations that have invested heavily
in idealistic conservative young people provide some examples
of what might be possible with greater financial resources.
Young people are ready to take on the social problems passed
down to them. If we take the steps to consciously and thoughtfully
support them in making a path to their life work, their talent,
energy, vision, and insight will reward our communities for
years to come.
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