Next Generation Scholars (NGS)

The Challenge

Next Generation Scholars is a non-profit organization serving first-generation, under-resourced students in California with academic and social support paired with socially conscious leadership development as they pursue higher education. For its 20-year anniversary, NGS wanted to create a human-centered print magazine that showcased student and alumni stories rather than a traditional data-driven impact report.

As a small nonprofit with limited internal bandwidth, they needed external leadership to manage the project end-to-end. They also recognized a broader need for consistent, strategic communications support. Engaging a Fractional Director of Communications allowed NGS to outsource high-level strategy and execution without a full-time hire, giving their team the capacity to focus on core roles while strengthening the organization’s long-term communications infrastructure.

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Our Role

Editorial, Creative, and Project Leadership

We managed the 20th Anniversary magazine from concept to completion:

• Sourced and onboarded a graphic designer
  
  
• Led creative and editorial direction
  
  
• Conducted interviews with founders, students, alumni, and staff
  
  
• Crafted and edited feature stories
  
  
• Collaborated with the designer on layout, visual identity, and publication
  
  
• Delivered a polished print magazine that captured 20 years of impact through compelling human-centered narratives
  
  

Fractional Director of Communications

Beyond this flagship project, our founder continues to partner with NGS as their Fractional Director of Communications, providing ongoing strategic leadership and capacity building. This role includes:

• Developing internal communications and marketing systems
  
  
• Creating and implementing brand guidelines
  
  
• Harmonizing visual and verbal identity across platforms
  
  
• Building strategic communications plans for programs, campaigns, and events
  
  
• Maintaining the organization’s overarching narrative strategy
  
  
• Leading the full refresh of the NGS website, including copy development, stakeholder approvals, and collaboration with multimedia designer Michelle Harp, who executed the visual and user experience design

This fractional structure offers NGS executive-level communications leadership without the cost of a full-time position: creating clarity, consistency, and capacity across the organization.

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Process & Approach 

Working closely with Executive Director Nghiem Bui, we identified the stories that best captured NGS’s past, present, and future. Our process included:

• Conducting in-depth interviews with stakeholders across generations of the organization
  
  
• Reviewing historical materials, student data, and multimedia archives
  
  
• Transcribing soundbites from past videos to preserve authentic voices
  
  
• Crafting narratives that balanced emotional resonance with organizational impact
  
  

Our storytelling approach intentionally blended data with human-centered narrative, appealing to both the head and the heart.

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Key Takeaway

Stories resonate louder than statistics. The anniversary magazine demonstrated how human-centered storytelling can deepen emotional connection and clearly communicate impact. 

Equally important, the fractional communications leadership provided to NGS extended far beyond this single project. By embedding narrative strategy into the organization’s communications systems, we helped NGS strengthen its narrative foundation, ensuring consistent messaging across campaigns, events, and long-term strategy, building sustainable capacity and amplifying the organization’s mission with clarity and authenticity.