Founded
2025 · California
Our Partners
CivicCapstone is a fellowship that places community college students inside civic nonprofits as consultants. Fellows take on real projects, build a professional network, and finish with work they can show employers and transfer schools.
Community college students are capable, driven, and ready to lead. They are also routinely passed over by employers in favor of students at four year universities, and most fellowships and internships are not built with them in mind. The result is a gap. Talented students move on to transfer or the workforce without the professional experience, references, and networks their peers already have.
CivicCapstone was founded to close that gap. We place fellows inside civic nonprofits as consultants and give them real projects with real stakes. Fellows analyze legislation, write op eds, and present policy recommendations to elected officials. The work is used, and the experience is real.
A semester long project with a nonprofit client. Real deliverables, not busy work.
Research, writing, analysis, presentation, and stakeholder communication.
A recommendation from your nonprofit supervisor on successful completion.
A cohort of motivated peers plus access to civic and industry professionals.
Op eds and policy briefs you can point to when it counts.
Concrete proof of ability for employers and for transfer applications.
Spend a semester embedded with a nonprofit as an impact consultant. You research, write, pitch, and deliver. This is not a shadowing program. Fellows do the work.
Bill analysis and state legislative research
Policy recommendations pitched directly to state legislators
Op eds written and published on behalf of nonprofit partners
Nonprofit strategy and program consulting deliverables
Advocacy Days presenting work to external stakeholders
Application, interview, cohort onboarding, and partner matching.
A minimum of three months, up to a full semester, with weekly check ins with the partner organization.
A final deliverable presented to the partner, such as a bill analysis, a set of policy recommendations, or a published op ed.
Where applicable, fellows present externally. Past cohorts have presented at the California State Capitol and on community college campuses.
Currently enrolled at or recently graduated from any accredited community college
18 years of age or older
Open to all majors and backgrounds
No prior experience required. Selection is based on motivation and collaboration potential.
Through CivicCapstone I learned how the largely invisible process of policymaking and lobbying actually works. For someone pursuing an adjacent career, those skills are vital to learn this early.
Nathan helped me enormously on my path as a student aiming to transfer to a UC, and I would never have found the opportunity with uAspire without CivicCapstone.