Multicultural Fellowship Program

In an area with such a wealth of young talent, it is essential to cultivate the next generation of community leaders to reflect the diversity of our region. In our Multicultural Fellowship Program, we select young professionals of color with the promise and passion to create significant social change. By working in our grantmaking teams and contributing to numerous projects across the Foundation, fellows gain dynamic hands-on leadership experience. Former fellows now serve as executive directors and development directors in nonprofits, as program officers in foundations, as government officials, and as professionals and academics who serve or work with nonprofits.

The Fellowship taught me the dynamics within a region or community that have been really helpful when thinking about how you can make change at a national or state policy level.

            -Recent Fellow

The San Francisco Foundation's Multicultural Fellowship Program aims to increase diversity in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. The Program provides young professionals of color with challenging work experiences and leadership opportunities in the areas of grantmaking and community building. The Fellowship includes an intensive curriculum, individual coaching, mentorship, access to local service sector leaders, and countless opportunities to build a professional network.

For a six-month period, the Fellowship program is operating at a reduced scale while the Foundation engages in strategic planning. The San Francisco Foundation’s Program department will begin recruitment of two new fellows in September 2009. The 2010-2012 fellowship will begin January 4, 2010. Please check our website at the beginning of September for application information.

Photo: The 2008-09 class of Multicultural Fellows are [pictured above, L-R] Grace Ma, Navin Moul, Josaphine Stevenson, Gloria Bruce, Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo, and Nacala Jendayi.

Multicultural Fellowships: A Model to Strengthen and Support Emerging Leaders of Color

There is growing recognition that leadership within the fields of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector are not reflective of the racial/ethnic diversity of the nation as a whole. The 2009 cohort of The San Francisco Foundation Multicultural Fellows drafted a paper, entitled "Multicultural Fellowships: A Model to Strengthen and Support Emerging Leaders of Color," detailing how the Fellowship can be used as a program model to encourage the development of leaders of color in nonprofit, governmental, and philanthropic sectors. The San Francisco Foundation’s commitment to supporting emerging leaders of color, as well as the longevity and success of the Fellowship Program, puts the fellows in a unique position to share our experience and offer recommendations on how similar fellowship programs could be developed in other sectors and foundations. The paper includes reflections from former and current fellows and is specifically focused upon the impact that the Fellowship Program has had on our careers and capacity as leaders. Click here to download a PDF of this paper.

Our 2009-10 class of Multicultural Fellows

Navin Moul (Program)

Before joining The San Francisco Foundation, Navin was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley in the Ethnic Studies Department. Her doctoral research looked at citizenship and belonging using the deportation of Cambodians living in the United States as a case study for understanding incorporation and identity. As a Fulbright Fellow, she lived and conducted field research in Cambodia, interviewing “returnees” who were forcibly removed from the U.S.. While in Cambodia, she also worked as the program director for Global Youth Connect, an organization that works to build and support a community of youth who are actively promoting and protecting human rights, and to educate and inspire the next generation to work for peaceful change. Prior to graduate school, Navin taught first grade at Spruce Primary in Washington State. She holds a Master’s degree in Ethnic Studies from University of California Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts in American cultural studies from Western Washington University.

Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo (Arts and Culture)

Before transitioning into the fellowship, she was a program assistant in Education and Community Development at the San Francisco Foundation. Prior to this, she was the program coordinator at the Latina Breast Cancer Agency. Additionally, Vanessa worked with the California Faculty Association at her university in a collective effort to address state budget cuts. She worked for two years with Self Help Graphic Gallery and Print Shop on the Day of the Dead celebration and Deaf Children’s Arts Festival. Vanessa also interned with the Mark Taper Forum’s Latino Theater Initiative, and was a youth program coordinator at Bienestar, an HIV education and service center serving the Latino community. Vanessa sings with Las Bomberas de la Bahia and is a student at Los Cenzontles Mexican Cultural Arts Center. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American studies from California State University, Los Angeles.