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Community Organizing Never Looked So Good

By SARA RIMER

Published: April 10, 2009

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

QUINN RALLINS, 23, graduated magna cum laude last year fromMorehouse College with a dual major in international studies and Spanish. This spring, Mr. Rallins is finishing his master’s degree in comparative social policy at Oxford. He has analyzed research for the Rand Corporation in England, led workshops in Malaysia for Amnesty International and founded an organization to help orphans in the Dominican Republic. His next step? Top financial and technology companies and nonprofit groups have expressed interest in hiring him. Even in this economy, he has options. But Mr. Rallins wants to be a community organizer — just like the world’s most famous one, Barack Obama. Mr. Rallins says he hopes to win a job with PICO, a national faith-based organization. He is applying for a position in Brockton, Mass., an industrial city battered by the state’s highest foreclosure rate, the loss of most of its major manufacturing jobs and dwindling state resources. Starting annual salary is about $35,000. “My mentor at Morehouse says that at the end of the day, it’s not about how much money you make, it’s about the lives you’ve impacted and the stories you have,” Mr. Rallins said. He is not alone.  A job that has not been all that alluring to college graduates is in resurgence, according to leading community organizers and educators. Once thought of as a destination for lefty radicals committed to living lives of low pay, frustration and bitter burnout, community organizing is now seen by many young people an exciting career.... read more