AAPF Young Scholars Program
The fi rst phase of the program is an intensive six-week internship during which AAPF works with the YSP interns (ages 17-22) to develop programming for girls grounded in a multidisciplinary and intersectional approach to assessing the conditions of Black girls’ lives. This summer research immersion course puts forth intersectionality as a theoretical and analytical tool for data gathering, data analysis, and interpretations, and contextualizing Black girls’ and women’s research performances. During the second phase of YSP, returning scholars provide peer mentoring to the incoming cohort, participate in additional research opportunities, receive assistance with drafting conference proposals or presentations, and make contributions to the YSP website.With the assistance of AAPF sta ff members representing various interdisciplinary backgrounds, the year-long program provides diverse resources to our youth participants that helps them achieve their educational and career goals. Previous YSP participants have studied topics related to the lack of diversity in the teacher workforce, the school- to-prison pipeline, disparate impact of the COVID 19 health pandemic, adolescent pregnancy, and spirituality and mental health. They have also utilized oral history techniques to study Black women elders of the Civil Rights Movement, conducted research projects that are featured on Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Intersectionality Matters! podcast, published in a research journal, and participated in CRT Summer School as teaching assistants and learners.
INFORMATION
Launched in 2020, AAPF’s Young Scholars Program (YSP) is a multi-phased leadership opportunity that organizes a cohort of young Black women and girls to develop their empirical research and policy analysis skills. The program operates from the principle that young Black women are the best informants and intermediaries in providing experience-based support systems, guidance, and mentoring for the next generation of Black girls. Centering Black girls’ lived experiences and insights, YSP participants explore intersectionality as a theoretical and analytical tool for understanding Black women and girls’ interpretations of historical and contemporary events.
Program initiatives and activities focus on the following questions throughout their training: 1. What is the role of intersectionality as a research paradigm in better understanding and addressing the social, political, and economic trends shaping Black girls’ and women’s lives? 2. How do Black women and girls make sense out of their lived experiences, and how might intersectional research be used to inform social policy, public discourse, and the public imagination? 3. What are some of the theoretical and methodological assumptions underlying the intellectual and political traditions of Black feminist thought, critical race theory, and intersectionality?
As we continue to expand the AAPF Young Scholars Program, participants will gain:
• Access to world-renowned critical race legal, gender, and educational scholars. • Opportunities to grow con fi dence in research and writing skills. • Knowledge of Black feminism, intersectionality, and gender policy advocacy. • A community of Black women and girls committed to advocacy, activism, and organizing.
AAPF
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