SECU Public Fellows, LFNC Fellows programs pave the way for public service
Two programs aiming to develop future public service leaders, the State Employees Credit Union Public Fellows Internship and the Lead for North Carolina Fellowship, intersect at the UNC School of Government.
The SECU Public Fellows Internship program was established in 2015 as a pilot at three UNC System universities. It builds capacity in local government by connecting undergraduate students to meaningful professional experiences in rural North Carolina communities. Now at sixteen UNC campuses, each university recruits up to 20 undergraduates per campus and provides stipends for their work.
Similarly, Lead for North Carolina (LFNC) at the School of Government also works to build capacity in local government and other community organizations. The program places recent college graduates in high-impact fellowships across the state with the hope of creating future public service leaders and transforming communities.
With SECU Foundation support of $1.5 million to-date, the program has placed 110 Fellows across the state in 88 different organizations. Fellows have secured over $87 million in grants to advance key community initiatives with an estimated $6.1 million in cost savings to partner jurisdictions. This year, the program is piloting a finance-specific track for Fellows with additional training to help local governments address capacity constraints in their finance departments.
Below, we profile three future public service leaders who have participated in both programs as they begin their careers.
Kennedy Young
Kennedy’s fellowship with LFNC is unique in that he is continuing work with West NGN Broadband, which he began previously during his SECU Public Fellow Internship with the same organization.
His supervisor, Sarah Nichols, regional and environmental planner at Land of Sky Regional Council, shared why her organization felt compelled to join the LFNC Fellows program and hired Kennedy:
“After hosting Kennedy as a SECU Public Fellow intern, we knew we had to take advantage of the energy, ideas, and determination of young people to help serve our region,” said Nichols. “We applied as a host site to LFNC because of Kennedy’s hard work as an intern. Luckily, Kennedy applied to the program and is continuing much of his work that he started as an intern as an LFNC Fellow today. The SECU Public Fellow Internship program and the LFNC Fellowship Program connect organizations like ours with young people hungry to make a difference in their local communities.”
Where did you work during the SECU Public Fellow Internship program?
I worked with the Land of Sky Regional Council in economic and community development. I worked in several different groups, including for WestNGN Broadband and WNC Broadband. I did research for different groups on state law, public outreach, and community development in terms of job creation, public art projects, and several other odds and ends.
How did that experience help you decide your next steps?
The SECU program was essential to my development, and my work with Land of Sky helped me have a broader understanding of how local and state governments work in both a legal and practical sense.
What kind of work are you doing now during your LFNC fellowship?
I now work exclusively with WestNGN Broadband, working towards trying to get broadband access to many lacking access in our region. I have also been focusing on digital equity and ensuring everyone within our area can access tools to succeed in our ever-changing modern landscape.
What are your professional goals for the future?
In the future, I look to go to law school and eventually make my way back to western North Carolina to continue to improve the lives of my fellow North Carolinians here in the mountains and statewide.
Alyssa Wadham
Where did you work during the SECU Public Fellow Internship program?
I worked with the Regional Civil Legal Aid Clinic, Pisgah Legal Services. I volunteered there prior to my internship as a screener. Volunteer screeners are the first point of contact when a potential client reaches out, and their job is to determine whether the caller’s issue is one that Pisgah Legal is funded to assist with. During my internship, I continued my work as a screener, and I developed training materials in conjunction with Professor Lee Anne Mangone in UNC Asheville’s Sociology Department for training new screeners both at Pisgah Legal Services and for her Poverty Law course.
How did that experience help you decide your next steps?
My time with the program solidified that helping others is a core value for me. Working with Pisgah Legal Services ignited a passion within me for serving and uplifting my community, especially the most vulnerable members of it.
What kind of work are you doing now during your LFNC fellowship?
For my Lead for North Carolina fellowship, I am in Hickory, North Carolina. I am based in the budget office and my work includes budget transfers and revisions and larger projects such as working with bond referendum money that is being used to make Hickory more walkable and increase the beauty, appeal to outsiders, and quality of life for Hickory’s residents.
What are your professional goals for the future?
Regardless of my pathway to get there, my end goal is to pursue a career in law in the public sector. The LFNC program has piqued my interest in local government, specifically around municipal attorneys. Who knows, maybe you’ll even catch me at the School in the future getting my MPA. What I do know for certain is that like the SECU Public Fellow Internship program, my fellowship with Lead for North Carolina has affirmed for me that my purpose is to help people in the public sector.
Alex Curry
Where did you work during the SECU Public Fellow Internship program?
For my internship, I interned with the public relations department of Alexander County School Board, which is where I grew up. In this position, I got to celebrate a lot of the leaders in my hometown, through newspaper articles and social media, for doing work to support the school system.
How did that experience help you decide your next steps?
Through my internship with my hometown community, I got to serve so many people who had done so much for me and the place I call home. This inspired in me a desire to lead where I live, which is a lot of why the LFNC fellowship resonated with me so much.
What kind of work are you doing now during your LFNC fellowship?
Currently in my fellowship, I’m helping the Southwestern Commission of Governments with housing and broadband projects as well as regional resiliency planning and general economic development. The commission is in Jackson County, which is where I’ve been living for college for the past four years. Again, through this fellowship, I am lucky enough to serve people who have done so much for my personal, academic, and professional growth.
What are your professional goals for the future?
I’m not sure what career I see myself in quite yet, but through both experiences, I have realized that whatever work I do, I know I want it to benefit and uplift the people around me.