Congratulations to the 2024 / 25 WILL EMPOWER APPRENTICESHIP Graduates! 

Posted in Announcements Women Innovating Labor Leadership

The 2024 / 25 WILL Empower Apprentices officially graduated from the program during a virtual commencement ceremony at the end of August.  The class included 13 apprentices, and was the seventh class of apprentices. The WILL Empower Apprenticeship program builds labor leadership among women and non-binary people by placing apprentices with worker justice organization host sites for their first paid work in the movement.  

Apprentices, mentors, staff members from the host sites and supporters attended the virtual ceremony.  

“This last year has really changed me as a person, in a way that I didn’t think was possible,” said Lizzy Prichard, who organized with OPEIU Local 792, where she successfully helped workers organize a new union. “I’m really deeply appreciative of this program, and being able to do the job that I feel like I’m going to want to do the rest of my life.”

“I’m doing more organizing than ever,in my community beyond this job, because I actually feel like I have the tools to do it,” said Alainn Hanson, who did an apprenticeship with the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University and is the Director of Student and Community Engagement.

“We have done this since last September through the last November election, and through everything that’s been going on this year, and it’s been a really scary time, but this job allowed me security to grow my organizing,” reflected Shane Wittstruck who stayed on with the Colorado AFL-CIO to do communications. “We raised the minimum wage in Boulder, we fought for the Worker Protection Act this legislative session, and now we’re fighting for the AI Sunshine Act and special session.”

Stacy Manjong, who did an apprenticeship with the National Black Workers’ Center, noted that the work now “feels less theoretical and more like something that I can act on…I just feel less daunted, because there are so many lovely people I’ve been able to reach out to, people whose successes I’ve seen and I’ve been inspired by.”

The 2024 / 25 WILL Empower Apprenticeship program graduates and their host sites were: 

Kimmon Williams – Teamsters  – Washington, DC 

Leela Berman – Caring Across Generations – Seattle, WA

Maddy Benfield – Strategic Organizing Center – New York, NY

Andreina Barajas Novoa – Strategic Organizing Center – New York, NY 

Emma Draga – UNITE HERE – Washington, DC

Ritzy Davidson – UNITE HERE – Washington, DC 

Jailyn Seabrooks – AFL-CIO / CTO – Raleigh, NC

Erleen Ellis  – National Black Workers’ Center –  – New Orleans, LA 

Stacey Manjong – National Black Workers’ Center – Washington, DC 

Lizzy Prichard – – OPEIU Local 792 – -Toledo, OH

Shane Wittstruck – CO AFL-CIO – Denver, CO

Alyssa Smith – LA Black Workers’ Center – Los Angeles, CA 

Alainn Hanson – Kalmanovitz Initiative / Georgetown – Washington, DC

For more information on the program, or serving as a host site, contact willempower.labor@gmail.com