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Call for Applications: Humanities EXCEL Fellowship with Santa Cruz County’s Youth Poet Laureate Program–Program Assistant 2025-2026

We encourage work-study and non-work-study students to apply. This internship is only open to undergraduate students with a declared or proposed Humanities major or minor and requires work authorization.

Application Deadline: May 18, 2025

The Humanities Experiential Career Exploration and Learning (EXCEL) Program connects undergraduate Humanities majors and minors with community partners for paid internships. Fellows gain valuable professional experience while exploring potential career paths.

Internship Details

Partner Organization: Santa Cruz County’s Youth Poet Laureate Program

Location: This is a hybrid role – You can expect weekly contact with the Poet Laureate in Downtown Santa Cruz, including in-person meetings every other week

Duration: Academic Year 2025–26 (September–June)

Hours: 10 hours/week

Pay: $20/hour

Mentorship: Regular check-ins and support from Farnaz Fatemi. Farnaz Fatemi, an Iranian American poet and writer and Santa Cruz County’s 2023-2024 Poet Laureate. She is a founding member of The Hive Poetry Collective, a member of Writers of Color – Santa Cruz County, and a former Lecturer in Writing at UCSC. In the summers, she teaches new transfer students in UCSC’s Transfer Edge program. Her book, Sister Tongue زبان خواهر, was published in September 2022. It won the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, selected by Tracy K. Smith, won an honorable mention from the Foreword Indies, and received a Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly. She is a California Individual Artist Fellow and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow.

What You’ll Do – Program Assistant

The Youth Poet Laureate is an advocate and county ambassador for poetry, social action, and civic engagement. They will champion their poetic practice while encouraging their peers to participate in the art form through readings, workshops, and appearances at events and engagements throughout the county.

You’ll work directly on programs for youth, specifically the Youth Poet Laureate (YPL) program. The intern will support the YPL program in various ways, including planning poetry opportunities for the cohort (including workshops both for and by the younger poets), organizing events & appearances, and outreach on behalf of the program. The intern will also support other marketing and organizational tasks related to the YPL program.

  • Opportunity Development for Youth Poets (25%): Researching and pursuing opportunities for youth poets—reading, publication, mentoring, etc.
  • Mentorship Support (20%): Supporting the YPL and cohort with personal mentoring opportunities.
  • Outreach & Publicity (20%): Outreach and communication to classrooms & poetry clubs to support the YPL cohorts (YPL + finalists); publicity for YPLs and programs.
  • Content Creation & Communications (30%): Developing/writing content for social media and website for the youth poet laureate program
  • Progress Tracking & Documentation (5%): Keep a detailed record of hours worked and progress on tasks, activities, and projects.
  • Humanities EXCEL Programming (5%): Attend two cohort meetings each quarter when possible and participate in asynchronous Canvas experiential learning reflection.

Eligibility & Qualifications

  • You must be a declared or proposed major or minor in a Humanities Division department and have good academic standing. If proposed, declare by June.
    • Eligible majors: Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism, Classical Studies, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Feminist Studies, History, Jewish Studies, Language Studies, Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy, Spanish Studies
    • Eligible minors: Black Studies, Classical Studies, East Asian Studies, History of Consciousness, History, Italian Studies, Jewish Studies, Language Studies, Linguistics, Literature, Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Philosophy, Spanish Studies
  • You have work authorization (required)
  • You can work independently and collaboratively (required)
  • You are interested in supporting teen writers and willingness to provide mentoring or support for their development.
  • You are comfortable and competent with writing formal emails to strangers for outreach and research.
  • You have proven strong writing skills.
  • You are competent with applications in Google Suite and Microsoft Suite (docs and spreadsheets)
  • You are organized and have time management strategies that help you complete your coursework and meet other responsibilities on time.
  • You are proactive when asking for help from professors or supervisors and turning assignments in.

How To Apply

  • Updated resume
  • 1-page cover letter addressing:
  • Address your letter to Farnaz Fatemi, Santa Cruz Poet Laureate

Review these resume and cover letter resources to ensure you are a strong candidate! For application help, see Humanities Career Engagement.

APPLY NOW


Questions? Email Kylie Rachwalski at hum-experiential-learning@ucsc.edu

The Mellon Foundation, The Helen and Will Webster Foundation, The Humanities Institute, the UCSC Humanities Division, and private donors generously support the Humanities EXCEL Program.

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Misconduct Disclosure Requirement:

As a condition of employment, the final candidate who accepts a conditional offer of employment will be required to disclose if they have been subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct; received notice of any allegations or are currently the subject of any administrative or disciplinary proceedings involving misconduct; have left a position after receiving notice of allegations or while under investigation in an administrative or disciplinary proceeding involving misconduct; or have filed an appeal of a finding of misconduct with a previous employer.

  1. “Misconduct” means any violation of the policies or laws governing conduct at the applicant’s previous place of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of policies or laws prohibiting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or other forms of harassment, discrimination, dishonesty, or unethical conduct, as defined by the employer. For reference, below are UC’s policies addressing some forms of misconduct: