Everyone has
a role. Everyone
has a stake.

Two seniors who help run the organization itself. They're chosen from the previous year's student leaders — people who already know the work from the inside. Their job isn't to lead a project. It's to make NewComm better.

At monthly events, they open the room, set the tone, and pay close attention to how things are going — not to supervise, but to learn. What's working? What's falling apart? That information goes straight to leadership.

Every month, they sit down one-on-one with younger student leaders to check in — not about project updates, but about how they're doing personally. What's hard? What's exciting? What do they need? Those conversations also help NewComm understand what to improve.

Four times a year, they meet with NewComm's senior staff to work on real strategic questions: How do we recruit better? How do we keep students engaged? Where should we expand next? They propose answers and help carry them out.

Two juniors elected by their peers to look after the full group of student project leaders. Unlike other project leaders, they don't run their own project — their job is to support everyone else's.

Every month, they visit all four project teams to see how things are going. Because they're not buried in their own work, they notice things no one else notices — a team that's stuck, a conflict that's brewing, a good idea that could help another group. They bring all of that to the monthly leadership meeting, where it shapes what happens next.

Eight students who each lead a project team tackling a real problem in their community. They manage a $10,000 budget, pick their own teammates, and answer to an actual client organization — a hospital, city agency, or other institution — for the results.

Fellows must come from the communities their projects serve. That's not a formality — it's the whole point. The people closest to a problem are the best equipped to design solutions for it.

Every month, Fellows present their thinking to a panel of subject-matter experts who pressure-test the work. Then they lead their team through execution. They're paid based on what they produce, not just for showing up — the same standard they'd face in any professional setting.

Up to ten students per team, hand-picked by a Fellow to do the actual project work. Mostly sophomores, though experienced juniors can join too. Each person takes on one specific job — not a vague title, but a real function with real responsibilities.

The four jobs are: Budget (tracking expenses, managing costs), Program Development (designing and planning the project), External Partners (reaching out to community contacts and stakeholders), and Marketing (telling the story through social media, design, and outreach).

Getting selected matters — a Fellow chose you from a pool of applicants. The spot is yours to keep or lose. Miss three sessions without a good reason, and your spot opens to someone who's been waiting for it.

Any senior who wants to stay involved is welcome. After years of being supported by this community, seniors flip to the other side — they become the support. They lead workshops on SAT prep, college essays, and financial basics, and they mentor younger students at monthly events.

The time commitment is intentionally light — 4–6 hours per month — so it fits alongside college applications. In return, seniors get essay writing help, exclusive dinners with other seniors navigating the same transition, and first access to paid roles when they get to college.

One Legacy Circle senior also joins the monthly expert panel as a peer advisor — someone who just went through the program and can speak to it with a credibility that outside experts can't match.

The starting point for everyone — and the heart of the community. Any high schooler can join with a short sign-up. No GPA minimum, no teacher recommendation. Once a month, General Members come to a showcase event where project teams present what they've built and ask for honest feedback.

That feedback isn't a formality. Project teams actually use it to improve what they're building. General Members are the real-world test audience — the people whose reactions shape the next version of every project.

For students who want to go deeper, the path is simple: apply to join a project team, get selected by a project leader, and start getting paid. The door is always open.

The adult closest to the day-to-day work at each host institution. Site Leaders come from the schools we have transformed into community design studios — they know the culture, the students, and the community because they're already embedded in it. They coach student project leaders, host the monthly showcase, and sit at the leadership table where program decisions get made.

Their most important job is translation. Students, school staff, and client organizations all speak different languages — and important things get lost between them. The Site Leader bridges every gap: making sure a student's idea lands with a client, and that a client's challenge makes sense to a 16-year-old.

During the summer, Site Leaders meet weekly with student project leaders as they develop their ideas — building trust before the pressure of the school year starts. By September, students know the Site Leader is in their corner.

Three specialists — a math expert, an English expert, and a senior peer advisor — who meet with student project leaders once a month. Their job isn't to teach a lesson. It's to pressure-test the work.

Student leaders show up with a specific question they're trying to answer for their project. Each expert pushes on it from their angle: Is this question actually measurable? Is the framing clear enough to get a team excited? Does it connect to the bigger problem you're trying to solve? The question gets sharper. Then the real work begins.

The peer advisor is a NewComm senior who just went through the full program — someone who managed a $10K budget themselves, not long ago. That firsthand experience gives them a kind of credibility that outside experts can't match.

Experts don't plan sessions or set agendas. Students bring the questions; experts respond. Students ask for the help they need — they don't sit through a lecture.

College students — many of them NewComm alumni — who handle the behind-the-scenes work that keeps projects on track. While high schoolers are in class, the Social Impact Team is preparing materials, coordinating with vendors, booking spaces, and making sure everything is ready when students walk in the door.

The split is intentional: high school students own the decisions, the strategy, and anything that teaches them something. The Social Impact Team handles the logistics that would just be busywork — printing, scheduling, production. They make things possible without taking things over.

The organizations that bring real problems to the table — and fund the student teams that work on them. A Community Client is a hospital, city agency, or other institution that comes to NewComm with a question their community needs answered. A student project team then spends the year building a solution.

This isn't a simulation. The client provides the funding, the problem, and the accountability. Students aren't completing a school assignment — they're delivering work that an institution plans to actually use. The best solutions get adopted and become permanent programs that outlast the students who built them.

This is what makes NewComm different from a typical youth program. Real organizations invest real money because they expect real results — and students rise to that standard.

Friends of NewComm who share their expertise with students as they test hypotheses and refine their projects. These are local entrepreneurs, small business owners, politicians, abuelas, college and university partners, and everyone in between — people who know the community because they live and work in it.

Community Partners don't follow a curriculum or fill out a form. They show up at showcases, take phone calls, answer questions, and give the kind of honest feedback that only comes from someone who actually lives with the problem students are trying to solve.

Their involvement makes the work real. A student budget projection means something different when a local business owner looks at it. A health outreach plan means something different when an abuela in the neighborhood tells you what would actually get her to show up.

The schools, museums, and community spaces that partner with NewComm — and get transformed into community design studios. Each site is hosted by a single partner institution. The partner opens its doors and provides the facilities. NewComm brings the students, the programming, the expert network, and the project funding.

Before NewComm arrives, it's a school or a museum. After the partnership launches, it becomes a community design studio — a place where students from across the city come to build real solutions for real problems. The institution provides the home. NewComm provides the engine.