Written by Brandon Mejias

Artwork by Libo Mahlati

We are excited to announce the United Black Family Scholarship Foundation has begun its 2020 internship program. On January 11, 2020, we welcomed two aspiring and talented University of California, Santa Cruz sociology students:

Tiffany Munoz

Yusra Dawood

We are ever thankful for the assistance of UCSC Professor Megan McDrew and our Resource Development Committee Supervisor Mark Ledbetter, also a UCSC grad, who worked tirelessly with the university’s sociology department to create this opportunity.

The project aims to provide students with an opportunity to gain hands-on experience and job training in the nonprofit sector under the mentorship of the organization’s board of directors and staff volunteers, incarcerated author, activist and UBFSF founder, Ivan Kilgore, Resource Committee Supervisor Mark Ledbetter, and renowned consultant, Glenn E. Martin, CEO of GEMtrainers, LLC, a New York based social justice consulting firm that partners with nonprofits from across the United States to assist with fundraising, organizational development, and marketing.

Notably, Mr. Martin is a longstanding American criminal justice reform advocate and the founder and former president of JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA). He also founded the campaign, #CLOSErikers and co-founded the Education from the Inside Out Coalition, a national campaign working to remove the barriers students face to a higher education while they are in prison, and once they are released. He has personally raised over $75 million dollars in the nonprofit sector.

In addition, the project enables interns to obtain real-world skills related to donor prospects research, communications, program development, administration of grant procurement, and fundraising for real community projects that make a difference.

Needless to say, we aim to make this project an exemplar of community improvement inside/outside activism. And while our interns become skilled at the organization activity which enables nonprofits to do great work in our communities, we believe it important to observe here how society, in general, disregards the potential of incarcerated people like our founder, who through vision and education, created a multitude of programs that hopefully realize effective funding to provide individuals in underserved communities better options and social and economic stability. Donate today!

Want to find out more about the United Black Family Scholarship Foundation and or our Internship program? Contact us.