University Of Missouri-St. Louis: New Class Of Coro Fellows Eager To Learn, Make An Impact In The St. Louis Community

Press release from the University of Missouri-St. Louis:

September 27, 2021

This year marks the return of the St. Louis Coro Fellows Program, reviving a tradition developing emerging leaders who work and lead across government, business and nonprofit sectors.

The University of Missouri–St. Louis helped revive the program last fall after a two-year hiatus, giving it a new home in the Community Innovation and Action Center.

Ten fellows were chosen to be part of its newest cohort, and they recently began their training and will be spending time at dozens of organizations across the St. Louis area. They’ll be committing a collective 12,000 hours on high-impact projects through the nine-month program.

“Over the next nine months, the fellows will participate in rigorous, experiential, community-based leadership training throughout the Greater St. Louis region,” said Samantha Babb, the program’s director. “We are looking forward to their collective growth and their work with community partners to co-create positive change.”

Meet the fellows:

Danijela Bule, St. Louis (by way of Ploče, Croatia)

Bule is a grassroots community organizer focused on relationship building and advocacy for and with unhoused people. She recently moved back to St. Louis after being away for 10 years – first pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies at Yale University, then living and working in the New York Tri-state area. Her long-term interests lie in creative social service models driven directly by those who use the services. As a Coro Fellow, she aims to increase her understanding of the social service landscape in St. Louis.

Elizabeth Collinger, St. Louis

Collinger is a native St. Louisan who studied Spanish and Sociology at Grinnell College. Her studies and experiences at Grinnell sparked her passion for faith-based community engagement as well as her interest in education policy, urban planning and the role of interfaith communities in social justice work. These wide-ranging interests and an eagerness to explore diverse avenues to social change led her to the Coro Fellowship. Collinger is ecstatic to return to St. Louis to explore its complex issues more deeply and help create meaningful and equitable solutions.

Emily Desmond, Worcester, Massachusetts

Desmond grew up in central Massachusetts and is a recent graduate of Cornell University, where she studied government with a minor in global health. She is interested in comparative governance and local policy implementation, specifically as it relates to city planning, connectivity and public health. As someone with myriad interests, she was drawn to the Coro Fellowship as an opportunity to engage directly with a variety of sectors to hopefully get a more realistic picture of the breadth of change that is possible across diverse spaces.

Lorenzo Giamartino, Berkeley, California

Originally from Berkeley, Giamartino graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in political science. During his studies, he became curious about topics of economic development and the impact of technology on day-to-day work activities. As a Coro Fellow, he is eager to gain unique access to a variety of organizations to see how they get work done.

This press release was produced by the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The views expressed here are the author’s own.