JERSEY CITY, NJ: The New Jersey Leadership Program (NJLP) has announced the opening of its application for the NJLP 2017 Summer Fellowship Program. The Program aims to expose South Asian youth in New Jersey to local government and politics.
This is a six-week program in which students of South Asian descent ranging from middle school through college will be placed in a full time internship with their local Mayor’s office, State legislator or the Governor’s office. In addition to the internship, fellows also take part in a leadership component which includes a weekly speakership series, networking events, career development workshops and field trips.
“We hope that by gaining experience in their local government, South Asian youth will go back to their respective schools and realize that they too can be government officials or elected representatives in the future,” said NJLP President Amit Jani.
Applications for the fellowship program are currently being accepted on a rolling basis through February 17, 2017. Interested candidates can apply at http://www.njlead.org/www.njlead.org.
“The hope is to build off our launch year for the NJLP Summer Fellowship Program this past summer, which was very successful and far surpassed our expectations,” said NJLP Vice President Amman Seehra. “We clearly saw a demand with our first class of fellows and the additional applications we received from the South Asian community throughout New Jersey. We hope to continue meeting this demand and training the next generation of leaders in our state.”
The NJLP held its first fellowship program this past summer, hosting ten fellows based throughout the State. Internship placements included the Office of Community Relations within Governor Chris Christie’s office, several State Senators and assembly people, as well as the office of South River Councilman Ryan Jones.
The fellows also heard from multiple elected officials, senior government staffers, business leaders and nonprofit executives during their weekly speakership series. Speakers included Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr., Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, Chief of Staff to Congressman Pascrell Assad Akhter, Chief Executive Officer of the Newark Boys and Girls Club Kavita Mehra, and many more.
Neela Pandya
