IPS has trained over 100 young progressives. I’m one of them.
My name is Chisom Okorafor and I have the absolute pleasure to be a Henry A. Wallace Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.
This fellowship genuinely changed my life.
I’d planned on becoming an academic, but my mentors here recognized my skills as a communicator and trusted me with building a TikTok channel for IPS. I spent the summer and fall interviewing IPS experts, creating short clips of their reports and analyses, and sharing them online. Those clips have now been viewed over 41,000 times and counting!
I also got to develop my writing skills, publishing op-eds in newspapers all across the country. Now I’m planning to become a progressive journalist so I can keep uncovering the truth about the issues and sharing it with as many people as possible.
“I talk about the IPS fellowship program all the time as a great model for what it means to invest in young people,” said Sidney Miralao, an IPS alum who now trains and educates young climate advocates. And after my own Wallace Fellowship, I agree.
I learned so much from IPS scholars, our movement allies, and the other fellows in my cohort. One week we even went to the Senate to watch IPS inequality expert Sarah Anderson testify about taxing corporations and overpaid CEOs.
I was told that IPS is like a home away from home. You hear that at a lot of places, but I genuinely have never felt so nurtured and cared for as I do at IPS. Everyone here is so knowledgeable, welcoming, and legitimately interested in the fellows as people.
IPS will be a part of my life forever, and I know I can always come here for community. And this is all thanks to supporters like you.
With your help, IPS has trained over 100 diverse young progressives like me and turned us into lifelong members of the movement. Please donate today to keep the future of our movements strong.
Even better, every dollar you give up to $50,000 will be matched by a generous donor. So donate today to double your impact on the future.
Thanks so much for your support.
Chisom Okorafor
Henry A. Wallace Fellow, IPS
