ALUMNI FELLOWSHIP
Youth Advisory Panel
& Design Fellowship
The Alumni Fellowship Program is a place for youth to be co-designers, strategists and agents of change in their communities. BUILD partners with youth to re-design curriculum, help philanthropists in education learn more about youth needs, ideas and hopes and collaborate with product developers to make products more engaging and culturally relevant.
Who should launch a Youth Advisory Group?
BUILD believes that some of our biggest problems in education and beyond are best solved when we engage with and build alongside the stakeholders nearest to the issues at hand. Whether you are looking to partner with youth or hope to launch a youth advisory group of your own, the entrepreneurial thinkers at BUILD are ready to work with you. Education product developers, philanthropists, and funders working in education or youth development programs and similar non-profits or school systems benefit most from learning with, listening to and designing alongside youth.
60+ hours
of curriculum over six units
What Is The
YAP & The YDF?
(Youth Advisory Panel) and the YDF (Youth Design Fellowship)
The YAP and the YDF are Fellowship programs run by BUILD.org. This program is an extension of our entrepreneurial program where we empower youth to be changemakers. Through participating in a multi-week fellowship program, students build their capacity for social and economic mobility while cultivating skills, networking with peers and adults, and engaging in participatory research practices. Youth become co-designers, strategists and thought partners as they propose new ideas for products, program design, and policy agendas.
Fellows apply their learning about User Experience and human-centered design thinking to real-world projects aimed at promoting equity and addressing social issues in education and in their community.
Fellows gain valuable experience, build their professional networks, and contribute to meaningful change in their communities. Inviting youth as co-designers helps create more meaningful and effective learning and community initiatives that better serve the needs of all.
The Youth Advisory Network brings youth voices to center stage in program development and design, strategy development, and education reform efforts.
BUILD has engaged youth around topics
- How to make a digital product feel more relevant, engaging, and enticing
- How to improve assessments in school – from the framing of an assessment to the outcomes proven and how those are shared with parents
- How to ensure that classroom environments follow culturally responsive and sustaining education best practices and principles by uncovering how YOUTH defines those spaces and environments.
Can I launch one?
Sure! BUILD would love to partner with you in this endeavor. If you’d like to discuss this, please reach out to Cindy Pineda at cpineda@build.org. You can also fill out our Partner Readiness form which helps us gauge your interest and capacity for this work. Be on the lookout in Fall 2023 for a toolkit that enables you to launch your own groups using tools and strategies that we find to work.
Student Perspective
on the YAP
Our Goals for the fellowship program
- Elevate voices of youth, specifically and especially those who are Black, Latinx, Indigenous or other People of Color and also those from predominantly under-resourced communities.
- Create space for youth to see themselves as valuable contributors and enthusiastic learners, making connections between their learning experiences and real life.
Cultivate leadership capacities for youth by engaging them in co-design experiences. - Enable organizations and institutions within education and youth development sector to craft strategies informed by youth insights that prioritize the needs, ideas and values of youth.
