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Advocacy Institute
for High School Students

Advocacy Institute

Join the Advocacy Institute, where you will gain the skills, knowledge, and lifelong support to become a leader in the movement to end factory farming.

Overview

Interns in the Advocacy Institute will gain:

  • Exposure to a wide range of approaches to improving the food system
  • Hands-on professional experience
  • Evidence-based social change strategy skills
  • Analytical and critical thinking skills
  • Effective communication training
  • Career networking and mentorship opportunities
  • Competency in technological, political, and business solutions to end factory farming
  • Connections with movement leaders in nonprofit, business, and policy
  • Lifelong membership and professional development in the Leadership Collective, and
  • A community of caring and supportive activists!

Program Dates

Summer High School Institute: June 26, 2023 - August 10, 2023

  • Students meet on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9am-1pm PT / 10am-2pm MT / 11am-3pm CT / 12-4pm ET
  • Orientation: June 26, 2023 from 11am-1pm PT / 12-2pm MT / 1-3pm CT / 2-4pm ET
  • Summer Term Celebration: August 10, 2023 from 4-5pm PT / 5-6pm MT / 6-7pm CT / 7-8pm ET
  • The time commitment for this program is 13 hours per week for 7 weeks, which includes:
    • Initial orientation
    • Workshops
    • Discussion hours
    • Elective hours
    • Two advocacy project 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 persuasive, verbal, and written communication strategies.
  • Learn fundamental institutional and political advocacy skills.
  • Learn about and engage in effective strategies to end factory farming.

Benefits

  • High school students who complete all program requirements are eligible for letters of recommendation.
  • Obtain a broader understanding of available career paths and be exposed to job and networking opportunities.
  • Gain long-lasting friendships and mentors through immersion in a like-minded, supportive community.
  • Earn academic/internship credit from your high school
    • Note: ​​​​If you would like to earn academic credit from your high school as part of your experience in the Advocacy Institute, please research the requirements for earning academic/internship credit through your high school and inform us of the requirements, provide us with necessary forms to sign, etc.

Partner Organizations

As part of your time in the Advocacy Institute, you will have the opportunity to work with one or more of our partner organizations:

the humane leaguebalanced logofriends of the earth logo

Sample Activities & Curriculum

  • 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
  • Introduction to Factory Farming with FFAC
  • Foundations of Animal Ethics
  • Foundations of Effective Communication
  • Effective Altruism and Animal Advocacy
  • Institutional Campaigns with Better Food Foundation and The Humane League
  • Animal Advocacy Careers 
  • Fish, Shrimp, and Invertebrate Welfare Panel with Shrimp Welfare Project and Fish Welfare Initiative
  • Green New Meal: How Factory Farming Fuels Climate Injustice with Noa Dalzell
  • Data to End Factory Farming with Faunalytics
  • Combatting Factory Farming in Asia with Asia Animal Alliance
  • Political Strategies to End Factory Farming with Prof. David Wolfson
  • Cultivated Meat with Mission Barns
  • Alternative Protein Careers with Good Food Institute
  • Indigenous Environmental Perspectives and Animal Agriculture with Prof. Claudia Serrato
  • Building an Equitable Movement with APEX Advocacy
  • Plant-Based Nutrition Panel
  • Meat and Masculinity Panel

Each student in the Advocacy Institute will be required to complete an advocacy project which requires that you choose at least one of the following options:

1) Deliver FFAC interactive lesson(s) to a class, student group, or organization on one or more focus areas: health, social justice, and environmental impacts of animal agriculture

OR

2) Work with FFAC partner organizations (e.g. The Humane League, Better Food Foundation, Mercy for Animals, Balanced) to start or contribute to an institutional campaign to lobby for more just, sustainable food access on your campus or in your community.

Students may choose to focus their energy on one of the above options or work on one of these in addition to another project.

Additional advocacy project possibilities include but are not limited to

  • Starting or supporting a student organization (with support from The Humane League)

  • Creating social media campaigns

  • Writing articles and op-eds for publication in various media outlets

  • Supporting outreach database management and expansion

  • Recruitment for the Advocacy Institute

  • Develop original projects, such as videos or other creative projects.

  • Water Use and Waste Management in CAFOs
  • Factory Farming and Mass Incarceration
  • Plant-Based Eating Support
  • Orientalism and Plant-Based Eating
  • History of Tofu and Cooking Demo
  • Graduate Programs and Funding
  • Self-experimentation, Prioritization, and Other Productivity Hacks
  • Cohort Social Hour

In-Person Events & Programming

The Advocacy Institute offers in-person events and programming opportunities in FFAC’s US regions. In all other regions, this program is accessible virtually.

  • The Bay Area
  • Los Angeles
  • San Diego
  • Denver Metro
  • Chicagoland
  • Northern Ohio
  • New York City
ffac active regions

Meet Our Cohort Leaders

Elly Ren
Atlanta, GA
Kiely Smith
New York City, NY
Leo Balik
Worcester, MA
Rowdy Keelor
San Diego, CA

Articles by Student Advocates

The Cause and Consequence of Plastic in the Ocean 
Fishing is responsible for a majority of the plastic polluting the ocean, causing extreme harm to marine animals, the environment, and human health.
May 05, 2023
The Unnatural Diets of Factory Farmed Cattle
Factory farmed cattle are fed grain-heavy diets, but their four-chambered stomachs were not designed for this. What happens when they don’t get the roughage they need?
Apr 21, 2023
Smithfield’s lagoons and their impact on North Carolina Residents
Factory farms use lagoons to store animal waste which is applied as fertilizer to fields, affecting nearby communities.
Apr 10, 2023
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