A Message from AHA Executive Director Fish Stark

(August 7, 2026) — The kids are all right.

At the AHA, we stopped giving out scholarships a while ago. Not because we don’t believe in the next generation – because we want to hire young people, pay them for their work, and use their insights and experiences to shape a growing, multigenerational humanist movement.

So this summer, we had six paid interns join us at the AHA, working full-time to support our different departments.

The world tends to underestimate what young people are capable of. But humanist thinkers like John Dewey and Benjamin Spock pushed people to realize that young people are more capable, resilient, and wise than is often understood. Our society treats young people as problems to be solved. Humanists understand they are ready to be unleashed.

We trusted our interns with substantive assignments, and they delivered. Here are just *some* of their accomplishments:

Adelle, a rising second-year at Harvard Law School, helped our legal team research some potentially groundbreaking cases to defend the rights of children from religious extremism.

Carleigh, a rising senior at Georgetown University, helped our organizing team design a Young Humanists program – and we’re getting ready to launch our first chapters of humanists under 40 in a handful of cities this fall.

Freya, a rising junior at Connecticut College, helped us build policy toolkits that will shape our efforts to empower YOU to combat extreme Christian Nationalist bills in statehouses next year.

Arunmoy, a rising sophomore at George Washington University, helped our communications team produce a great series of videos on attacks on church-state separation and plan for a redesign of our newsletter and digital offerings.

Natalie, a rising junior at American University, led one of our most-attended webinars for humanist celebrants in years, presenting research on new trends in wedding ceremonies, and helped lay the groundwork for our Clinical Pastoral Education course for humanist chaplains launching in the fall.

And Eve, a rising sophomore at Williams College, helped lay the groundwork for the Center for Freethought Equality’s website redesign and supported its fundraising efforts through what’s been a banner year for grassroots donations.

Beyond their excellent work with our different departments, this class of interns shared thoughtful insights with me – and our team – about how humanism can effectively counter Christian Nationalism, offer the moral voice their generation is looking for, and build community for the most secular generation in American history.

As humanists, we believe that if you trust people, they will prove that they are more capable than you imagined. And as movement-builders, we know we have to involve young people in our day-to-day work – and take their feedback seriously – if we want to grow into a truly multigenerational community.

We are building it, day by day. Countless talented young people from across the country applied for these internships – meaning there is no shortage of young voices interested in helping push the humanist movement forward. As long as we’re ready to listen and support them – which, to me, is a privilege, a way of returning the favor of those who listened to and supported me when I was a student – we’ve got a bright future ahead of us.

For humanity,
Fish