The Shinnyo Community Impact Fellowship: A decade of promoting peace through service
Unique fellowship introduces new grads to public service through hands-on community work, community-engaged research, and a personal path of purpose and peace.
Mia Bennett's friendly face was one of the first to greet attendees when they arrived at "Welcoming Week" events for newcomers to Redwood City. In fact, Mia was a bit of a newcomer herself — a recent graduate of Stanford University, she was embarking on her career journey as a Shinnyo Fellow.
Mia is the eleventh Shinnyo Fellow from Stanford, continuing a fruitful decade of community service and partnership among Shinnyo-en Foundation, Stanford's Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford's John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, and Redwood City Together.
"I'm excited to build on my Stanford experience, which taught me how to think critically, and engage directly in community work," says Mia, who graduated with a major in human biology and has plans to go to medical school and specialize in pediatrics.
"There are not a lot of first jobs that allow you to gain professional experience and that also align with your personal values," she observes. "The community looked out for me and my family when I was growing up in Monterey — I want to give back."
A unique path
Since 1985, Stanford's Haas Center has encouraged students to explore public service through volunteerism, community-engaged coursework, and full-time fellowships in the summer and after graduation. Within the Haas Center, the Cardinal Careers team focuses on making public service careers accessible to Stanford students; its Community Impact Fellowship program places Stanford graduates in full-time, paid positions in nonprofit organizations and government agencies for one to two years following graduation. These partner-funded fellowships pair graduates with organizations and agencies ranging from Common Sense Media to LifeMoves to the City of San Jose.
Against this backdrop, the Shinnyo Fellowship is unique, explains Program Director Ben Weissman. Shinnyo-en Foundation funds fellowships to build university-community partnerships and nurture young people on a path to service. In Stanford's case, the Shinnyo Fellow's time is split between work at two organizations: nonprofit Redwood City Together (three days per week) and Stanford's John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities (two days per week).
In their capacity with Redwood City Together, the fellows support community events like youth conferences, health fairs, and welcoming activities for newcomers, as well as the LIBRE program connecting immigrants to local resources. Thirty percent of the fellow's time is spent at the Gardner Center, working with multi-disciplinary teams on active research and community engagement projects. In the coming year, for example, Mia will work on the evaluation of a San Mateo County program that supports children in homes with domestic abuse.
The foundation, which also funds fellows from other universities, brings these young people together during the summer after graduation for a Shinnyo Fellowship Program Orientation. The orientation grounds itself in the mission of Shinnyo-en Foundation — to promote peace through service — and starts the fellows on an intentional and individual "Path to Peace" that they will pursue throughout the year.
Unexpected insights
The experience is fresh in Ella Johnson Gray's mind as she reflects on her past year as the 10th Shinnyo Fellow at Stanford. Like Mia, she plans to go to medical school and the fellowship helped her gain clarity about her ambition to work in community health.
"This opportunity affirmed my aspirations and taught me important ways to communicate and engage with coworkers and the people I serve," she says.
It brought other unexpected insights too.
"I understood the clinical value of Stanford's research, but I also discovered a real satisfaction in building bridges between Stanford's research capabilities and community organizations," observes Ella. As one example, she led a training for nonprofits about how to collect and analyze data in ways that would support their missions.
Along the way, Ella and the others in her cohort chronicled their journeys and shared their personal experiences with their teams. "My efforts might just be like a small pebble dropping in water," she observed during one such update, "but that can create a ripple effect that extends far beyond what I can imagine."
Mentorship
Rafael Avendaño serves as executive director at Redwood City Together and also as a mentor for the Shinnyo Fellows during their time with the organization. He explains that the fellows help advance the success of youth and families in Redwood City and North Fair Oaks through community collaboration. More than that, though, he says that fellowship has given him the chance to mentor young people who are committed to community work.
"To be a part of someone's service life to others is a wonderful opportunity," he says. "I'm now in my fifth year as a mentor and it brings me a lot of energy and joy to be a part of what the Shinnyo fellowship calls the pathway to peace."
Complementary roles
Deputy Director Jorge Ruiz de Velasco weighs in on why the fellowship remains a priority for the Gardner Center after 10 years. He explains that the fellow's research focus at the Gardner Center complements the hands-on work with Redwood City Together.
"We help youth-serving organizations like Redwood City Together become good consumers of research, so they can understand and promote the long-term impact of their programs," he explains. "That lens is critically important for anyone who wants to make a real and lasting difference in the community."
Jorge and other team members work together to align projects with a fellow's personal and professional interests and foster their connections with the local community.
Self-reflection and exploration
Ineko Tsuchida, long-time program director at Shinnyo-en Foundation, has witnessed all of this first hand in the 10 years since she first brought these organizations together. She says it is especially rewarding to see how the Shinnyo-en emphasis on self-reflection and exploration of paths to peace has contributed to the fellows' personal and professional development.
"We hear that the Shinnyo Fellows appreciate taking a year after graduation to immerse themselves in community organizations, learn the needs of their chosen communities or clients, adjust their expectations about their future occupations, and form more realistic and achievable paths to peace," she reflects.
"I don't believe any of this would be possible without the direct supervision, mentorship, and coaching they receive from the leaders at the Gardner Center and Redwood City Together."
If you are a Stanford student and interested in learning more about the Community Impact Fellowship program or other ways to work in public service after graduation, contact Ben Weissman.
