Your voice carries power.
Learn how to wield it.
Welcome to the Advocacy Project at Cornell University
Whether you’re a student applying to grad school, an employee negotiating a wage change, or anyone else, you could benefit from knowing how to advocate — for yourself and others. But standing up for a cause can sometimes feel daunting. That’s where we come in.
Our Mission
Spread access to a quality education in persuasion, argumentation, and advocacy, available to anybody with an internet connection.
How We Make It Happen:
Programming/Events
We focus on a narrow advocacy issue for a specific audience. In each workshop, we bring guest speakers to offer advocacy expertise. Our members then meet with attendees one-on-one to hone individual skills. As of May, 2021, only a year after our founding, our workshops had welcomed over 1,300 attendees.
Curriculum
Using our own experiences and the lessons we learned from our experts, we guest-lecture in classroom settings or organizational settings, bringing our advocacy skills to a broader, academic context. In spring 2020, we became the first students to teach in a rostered Cornell class, joining ILR3300, Advocacy and Debate. Additionally, we’ve held over numerous workshops for over a dozen student organizations on campus teaching them the fundamentals of public speaking, advocacy, and leadership.
Team Training
We are always looking for ways to improve our own advocacy skills. All of our team members undergo a rigorous advocacy training, attending interactive sessions with expert activists who share their tips for best engaging with communities and sharing one’s voice.
“The Scientista and Advocacy Project workshop was an insightful and a truly inspiring event. Not only was it a wonderful opportunity to meet other women inspiring to pursue careers in STEM fields, but it also provided helpful advice and encouragement. I was delighted to participate, share my experiences and honored to be included in the program. Thank you for a great workshop and giving me the opportunity to be a part of it.
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