Yeah, agree with this as a student. I’m very keen on applying, but I have no reference for what the expectations are. I get that the Fellowship is flexible by design, but a point of reference (such as a hypothetical or real life example) would really help.
WRT to your second point, I actually dont think paying is as big of a deal as people are implying. I worked with very competent national-level student organisers who were willing to put in wayyyyyyyyyy more than 40 hours a week for their causes and even get arrested or forgo prestigious awards/school for them. However, the types of people who are active in this way are also mindful of academic and career expectations.
It’s slightly taboo to treat social causes as sources of money, but I find that young people are forced to make this decision eventually. Society tells them any level of societal impact is subordinate to any level of career progression, so it’s practically inevitable to lose competent organisers who take the first part time job that they’re way overqualified for in practice. I’ve seen it happen plenty.
This of course changes the way you approach recruitment, but IMO that’s a good (and not entirely different) problem from what you had relying solely on volunteers.
Yeah, agree with this as a student. I’m very keen on applying, but I have no reference for what the expectations are. I get that the Fellowship is flexible by design, but a point of reference (such as a hypothetical or real life example) would really help.
WRT to your second point, I actually dont think paying is as big of a deal as people are implying. I worked with very competent national-level student organisers who were willing to put in wayyyyyyyyyy more than 40 hours a week for their causes and even get arrested or forgo prestigious awards/school for them. However, the types of people who are active in this way are also mindful of academic and career expectations.
It’s slightly taboo to treat social causes as sources of money, but I find that young people are forced to make this decision eventually. Society tells them any level of societal impact is subordinate to any level of career progression, so it’s practically inevitable to lose competent organisers who take the first part time job that they’re way overqualified for in practice. I’ve seen it happen plenty.
This of course changes the way you approach recruitment, but IMO that’s a good (and not entirely different) problem from what you had relying solely on volunteers.