Frequently Asked Questions
We're so excited that you are interested in getting involved! If you haven't yet, check out our current projects page to see what we are currently working on. The quickest way to get involved is to donate and/or tell your friends and social media about AARJ!
More tangibly, you can become an Alum Mentor! Through our Student Mentorship Program, we try to connect students with alumni to help create and broaden community. If you're interested, fill out the form here.
Interested in getting involved in more or different ways? Send us an email at info@aarj.org. We can't wait to hear from you!
Unless otherwise specified, your donation goes into the general AARJ fund. This money is allocated toward our different projects as needed and operational costs as well. If you want your donation to go toward a specific project or part of AARJ, specify that on your donation and then that money will only be used for the specified purpose!
Yes! AARJ is a registered US tax-exempt corporation under section 501(c)3. After you make a donation, a donation reciept will be sent to the provided email. This reciept should be saved in your records for tax purposes.
All too often, institutions claim to support diversity and/or inclusion without enacting any systemic, structural, or policy change to foster racial equity. Without antiracist policy, “diversity and inclusion” initiatives can often tokenize people of color.
AARJ chooses to emphasize racial justice and equity over diversity and inclusion because we want to change the systems themselves, not just make the existing unjust systems more diverse. Without racial justice and equity, diversity and inclusion merely brings students of color into pre-existing unjust and unsafe spaces.
Representation at the institutional level is an important part of changing and uprooting unjust systems. People in positions of power and authority have direct access to the decision-making processes that impact the everyday lives of communities of color.
Representation of individuals from various communities and identity groups at the institutional level increases the likelihood that the governing body will make decisions and enact policies that value the welfare of various communities and identity groups.
Currently, AARJ is focusing our energy and funds toward multiple ongoing projects at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. In the future, we plan to grow in scale and scope in order to advocate for antiracist policy and practice at other predominantly white institutions.
No, AARJ is a non-profit that is completely separate of the colleges and universities mentioned on our site. AARJ is in no way affiliated with the colleges and universities and does not necessarily represent them or their beliefs.
As an organization, we hope and try to collaborate with the colleges and universities to create change, but AARJ is in no way compensated by or a sub-set of the schools.
We interface with current student activists to determine how AARJ can be most useful and what kinds of projects to fund.
Currently, we are working on a variety of projects, which can be found here!