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Advocacy Institute
for High School Students

Overview

As a high school student in the Advocacy Institute, you will gain the skills, knowledge, and lifelong support to lead in the movement to end factory farming.
Program elements include:
  • Workshops led by movement leaders
  • Elective hours on a wide variety of topics
  • Mentorship by an Institute college student
  • One-to-one support from FFAC staff mentors
  • An advocacy project of your choice
  • Opportunities to connect with like-minded peers
  • Internship and job opportunities
  • Letters of recommendations and introductions
  • Lifelong membership in the Leadership Collective
Students also have the option to pursue further Institute training as a continuing student advocate. After completing one term at the Institute, students become members of the Leadership Collective. The Advocacy Institute program for high school students is offered every summer.

Summer Schedule

  • Students meet on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9-1pm PT / 12-4pm ET
  • Time commitment: 14 hours per week for 7 weeks, which includes:
    • Initial orientation
    • Workshops
    • Discussion hours
    • Elective hours
    • Two practical hours per week

Student Learning Objectives

  • Learn about the socioeconomic and scientific developments that gave rise to and continue to support industrial agriculture. 

  • Develop a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of factory farming on animal welfare, the environment and climate change, public health, and social justice. 

  • Improve verbal and written communication strategies.

  • Learn fundamental institutional and political advocacy skills. 

Sample Activities & Curriculum

Readings and Analytical Discussion Topics

  • Environmental impacts of animal agriculture
  • Environmental justice
  • Meat workers
  • Animal health
  • Animal ethics
  • Plant-based nutrition and human health
  • Food racism/food justice
  • Connections with racial justice
  • Indigenous perspectives
  • Connections with feminist theory
  • Connections with disability rights
  • Future of food (biotech)
  • Policy
  • Effective activism: communication
  • Effective activism: strategies to end factory farming
  • Effective activism: careers and sustainable advocacy

Workshops

  • Animal ethics
  • Climate change and animal agriculture
  • Food sovereignty
  • Media, animal advocacy, and the principles of persuasion
  • Indigenous perspectives and factory farming
  • Institutional campaigns: shifting culture in your community
  • Lobbying 101: How to lobby your local representatives
  • Open Sanctuary Project, LGBTQ+ perspectives
  • Plant-based nutrition panel
  • Public health: pandemics
  • Public speaking for activists
  • Self-care strategies for activists
  • Virtual farmed animal sanctuary tour: Charlie's Acres
  • A Green New Meal: factory farming and environmental justice
  • Community-building and organizing strategies
  • Building an equitable movement
  • Meat & masculinity panel

Practical Hours

  • Delivering FFAC presentations: health, social justice, and environmental impacts of animal agriculture
  • Working with Friends of the Earth or Balanced to establish plant-based dining options, pass legislation, and lead campaigns
  • Creating social media campaigns
  • Writing articles and op-eds for publication in various media outlets
  • Tabling/leafleting on campus to raise awareness about factory farming impacts
  • Other projects on approval

Elective Hours

  • Educational Hour: Climate Justice and Factory Farming
  • Educational Hour: Effective Altruism
  • Educational Hour: Graduate programs- PhD, MS, MA, and funding for graduate school
  • Educational Hour: How to take political action for animals
  • Skill-Building Hour: Mindfulness in advocacy
  • Skill-building hour: Writing workshop
  • Social Hour: Community building
  • Social Hour: Plant-Based Eating Support

Meet Our Cohort Leaders

Elly Ren
Programs Coordinator
Atlanta, GA
Kiely Smith
Advocacy Institute Program Manager
New York City, NY
Noa Dalzell
Advocacy Institute Cohort Leader
Boston, MA
Rowdy Keelor
Classroom Program Manager
San Diego, CA
Vidisha Rai
Educational Coordinator
SF Bay Area, CA

Articles by Student Advocates

How Safe is That Burger? A Look at Inspections of the Meat Industry
The meat industry is regulated by the federal government but how it is regulated affects the food you eat.
May 12, 2022
Is the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act Really Humane?
The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act of 1958 was passed with the intention of placing regulations on slaughter practices for animals in factory farms in an effort to make them more “humane.” However, over the decades it has become glaringly obvious that the HMSA is not doing what it is meant to do and between the legal loopholes and the inconsistent enforcement, the Act has become just another piece of legislation that has failed to protect animals suffering in factory farms.
Apr 28, 2022
What Does Effective Altruism Lead Us to Believe About Factory Farming?
Factory farming generates a significant measure of suffering through environmental destruction and social injustice. But of all the suffering resulting from animal agriculture, the billions […]
Apr 21, 2022