Alverno Student Honored as Newman Civic Fellow

Campus Compact, a Boston-based non-profit organization working to advance the public purposes of higher education, has announced the 213 students who will make up the organization’s 2021-2022 cohort of Newman Civic Fellows. Vania Jurkiewicz, a student at Alverno College, will join 212 students from 39 states, Washington, D.C., and Mexico to form the 2021 cohort. This is the fifth year in a row an Alverno student has been named a Newman Civic Fellow; Katherine Watson was selected for the 2017 cohort, Alejandra Gonzalez was chosen for the 2018 cohort, Donna Lewis-Taylor was part of the 2019 cohort, and Cassandra Abarca was selected for the 2020 cohort.

Jurkiewicz, a junior majoring in English with a minor in Women and Gender Studies, is a first-generation student. On campus she serves as a peer leader mentoring first-year students, and as a student research assistant with Alverno’s Research Center for Women and Girls. Off campus she works with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on their immigrants’ rights and reproductive rights campaigns.

“Vania is an inspiration to first-generation students who have experienced the challenges of navigating higher education,” said Dr. Andrea Lee, IHM, president of Alverno College. “She is a campus leader who recognizes the importance of research and outreach in driving change in policy and practice. Her purpose is clear – policies and practices must be transformed to support Latinx and first-generation students access and thrive in higher education. She not only leads, she inspires.”

The Newman Civic Fellowship is a year-long program for students from Campus Compact member institutions. The students selected for the fellowship are leaders on their campuses who demonstrate a commitment to finding solutions for challenges facing communities locally, nationally, and internationally.

The fellowship is named for the late Frank Newman, one of Campus Compact’s founders, who was a tireless advocate for civic engagement in higher education. In the spirit of Dr. Newman’s leadership, Campus Compact member presidents and chancellors nominate student leaders from their campuses to be named Newman Civic Fellows.

Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides students with a variety of learning and networking opportunities that emphasize personal, professional, and civic growth. Fellows participate in numerous virtual training and networking opportunities to help provide them with the skills and connections they need to create large-scale positive change. The fellowship also provides students with pathways to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.

“We are proud to recognize these extraordinary student leaders and thrilled to engage with them,” said Campus Compact President Andrew Seligsohn. “The experience of the last year has driven home to all of us that we need open-minded, innovative, public-spirited thinkers and doers. That is what Campus Compact is about, and the stories of our Newman Civic Fellows demonstrate it's who they are.”

Learn more at compact.org/newman-civic-fellowship. You can read more about each of the student leaders selected for this year’s cohort at compact.org/newman-civic-fellowship/2021-2022-newman-civic-fellows.

Campus Compact is a national coalition of colleges and universities committed to the public purposes of higher education. Campus Compact supports institutions in fulfilling their public purposes by deepening their ability to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility. As the largest national higher education association dedicated solely to campus-based civic engagement, we provide professional development to administrators and faculty to enable them to engage effectively, facilitate national partnerships connecting campuses with key issues in their local communities, build pilot programs to test and refine promising models in engaged teaching and scholarship, celebrate and cultivate student civic leadership, and convene higher education institutions and partners beyond higher education to share knowledge and develop collective capacity. Visit compact.org.