If you want change, run for office.

This was the “open call” Jetpac made to American Muslims shortly after Inauguration Day 2017. In one day, we received over 100 applications to our Public Service Fellowship from American Muslims and minority allies wanting to make a difference. Jetpac’s hallmark Public Service Fellowship program is a personalized six-week political consultancy that teaches American Muslims everything they need to know about running for office. Our rigorous curriculum covers all aspects of campaigning, including how to reach voters, build effective local movements, leverage the right resources, overcome Islamophobic attacks, and more.

Political staff play a major role in shaping public policy, and often minorities — especially American Muslims — have been underrepresented in this space. Jetpac is developing an internship placement program with other American Muslim civic organizations to help high school and college students gain placement in internships with their local and state legislative offices.

Jetpac builds long-term political infrastructure by inspiring future generations of American Muslims to confidently engage in the civic process and pursue leadership. Our original AP-accredited U.S. Government and Politics course combines grassroots activism strategies with Islamic principles while teaching the fundamentals of American democracy. Our AP course showed such success at Al-Noor Academy in Mansfield, MA that the enrollment tripled after the pilot semester. We have growing interest from schools across the country to implement this curriculum. In early 2018, we will scale our AP course into a weekend-intensive training program, which will provide high school students with the tools to become more engaged citizens and to navigate and combat Islamophobia. We are currently organizing with community centers across the country to introduce this program to a community near you! If we wish to carry this movement beyond today’s political climate, we must educate our children and encourage them to be civic leaders — just as our previous generations were encouraged to be doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs.