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Writing Samples
Direct Mail Fundraising Appeal
Dear Supporter,
Imagine that you are a high school student of color. You have limited resources at home. Because of budget cuts, you can
no longer ride the bus to school. The public bus is full the next morning and passes you by. Upon arriving at school, you
are immediately ticketed for being late and given detention.
Later that day, one of your classmates tells you about a meeting they attended with One Nation Enlightened's Students
4 Justice campaign (S4J). Your classmate says that the meeting was what the students wanted, fighting for change. You attend
the next meeting, and leave feeling empowered, excited, and ready to take action. You and 30 other students go to the principal
and demand that tarries due to full buses be excused, and that RTD add bus routes to serve students. O.N.E. and Students 4
Justice serve as a resource for students to come together and organize to build power for social change.
Personal Fundraising Appeal
Dear Friends and Family-
Last October, I was chosen as an intern with the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT). Through trainings,
technical assistance, and individual consultation I have been given resources to develop transferable skills and articulate
a political framework around fundraising and social justice. Before GIFT I didn't think about fundraising much, and defiantly
not as a political activity. Today, I am excited about pursuing development and fundraising work as a career and thankful
for the focus this internship has given me in creating that goal. That is why I am asking you to make a contribution to the
GIFT internship program.
Demanding Academic Freedom, Published in Free Voices
In light of the recent media attention brought upon professor Ward Churchill, of our sister campus in Boulder, we are calling
on YPSL members and students Nationwide to come together to resist the assault on Academic Freedom. We believe that the attack
on Prof. Churchill is a deliberate diversion from the broader right-wing agenda of undermining the future of young people
in the U.S. today. We believe that this agenda, which has been well implemented in Colorado and is spreading throughout the
country, includes the deliberate dismantling of the public higher education system. Colorado Governor Bill Owens has been
instrumental in spearheading this campaign. Higher education budget cuts and shrinking financial aid availability are only
the beginning. Recently, Owens stated that he believes he should be in charge of making higher education decisions in Colorado,
and that he does not agree with the CU Board of Regents being selected by democratic election. Instead, he would like to select
the Board himself. Owens is also calling for legislation that would remove the current tenure policy for Colorado professors,
which is currently set by Universities, and instead create a legislative body that would control policy. Owens states that
tenure shouldn't protect professors from being fired. We take this to mean that Owens believes any statement a professor makes,
in or outside of the classroom, can be used to fire that professor.
Maverick Thinkers Speech
...To the youth of Urban Peak and all young people who have not been lifted up the way they should: Your suffering is not
your fault. The abuse, hurt, fear, anger, the cold, lonely nights and days, you did not bring this upon yourself. Rather,
your oppression is the result of a long-standing tradition in our society-the tradition of ignoring those of us who live in
the margins. Society, you see, likes to believe that everything is o.k., and that the only people who need help are far off
in some distant place. As a result, we go unnoticed, kept in the margins, where society won't have to deal with us-you and
I who are really just a part of everything else. So never think for a second that your oppression is your fault...
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