Friend:

It’s hard to believe summer vacations are winding down and (hopefully!) back-to-school season is almost upon us. At AU, this means bidding farewell to an extraordinary group of interns and our inaugural class of Youth Organizing Fellows.

The Fellowship program kicked off a year ago to build a leadership pipeline for our movement. While COVID required our interactions to be largely digital, the energy and intellect of our 10 inaugural fellows still bowled us over.

Ariana Khan, daughter of Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants, is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in statistics at Eastern Michigan University. She plans to fight for religious freedom using data-driven arguments to advance policies benefiting historically marginalized communities.

Brian Nguyen, who recently graduated from University of Central Florida, came to AU to build his leadership and organizing skills. Claire Davidson Miller, a recent graduate of Brown University and a feminist “since fourth-grade Judaics class,” wants to educate other activists about the ways church-state separation underlies many of the most critical issues facing her generation.

Jane Brinkley, Kevin Chisholm, Katie Fleischer, Alex Jackson, Sophia Kics, Ranen Miao and Prin Ocea—each brought a unique perspective and set of objectives to their time at AU, more than fulfilling our high hopes for this new program. You can read more about them at au.org/youthfellows. We’ll soon be welcoming a new class of Youth Organizing Fellows, but this first group of youth leaders will hold a special place in our hearts and has taught us so much.

On top of our Youth Organizing Fellows, we have also been lucky enough to have nine summer interns. These interns have spent much of their time researching, blogging and articulating new ways of looking at church-state issues and the torrent of events impacting AU’s work this summer.

Ethan Magistro, a philosophy major at Princeton and a Communications Intern, spoke for his peers in his first blog post, "Enter the Young: Why I’m Excited to Be Interning for Americans United this Summer":

“The mark of Generation Z is one of activism, diversity and new ideas. In the battle for the separation of church and state... it’s important to bring the young into the fold, using our fresh perspectives to spearhead the next generation of First Amendment activism.”

Legal Interns Alexa Jordan, Lafayette Matthews, Allie Schiele and Chelsea Thomeer; Development Intern Alexa Laferte; Digital Communications Intern Erin Faulkner; Organizing Interns Jessica Chiriboga and PY Liu—all left their mark on AU and our supporters. We will no doubt stay in touch with all of these young leaders. 

Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi said, “The power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world.” These 19 young people will be the power of true religious freedom for generations to come, and I am so proud that Americans United has had the opportunity to learn from them and play a role in developing their talents and drive.

With hope and determination,