Alverno Student Honored as 2018 Newman Civic Fellow

Campus Compact, a Boston-based non-profit organization working to advance the public purposes of higher education, has announced the 268 students who will make up the organization’s 2018 cohort of Newman Civic Fellows, including Alverno College’s own Alejandra Gonzalez.

Gonzalez is majoring in Community Leadership and Development with a minor in Global Studies. As a DACA recipient and a member of Voces de la Frontera, a local immigrant rights organization, she has been a tireless advocate for immigrant rights in Milwaukee. She also founded the Youth Empowered in the Struggle (Y.E.S.) chapter at Alverno, which is the youth arm of Voces de la Frontera. Gonzalez shares her personal immigration story with elected officials emphasizing the importance of immigration reform, as well as on stage through her acting. She plans to continue her advocacy for immigrants and refugees by lobbying for health care accessibility and affordability.

The Newman Civic Fellowship, named for Campus Compact co-founder Frank Newman, is a one-year experience emphasizing personal, professional, and civic growth. Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The fellowship also provides fellows with access to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate and engage with such an extraordinary group of students,” said Campus Compact president Andrew Seligsohn. “The stories of this year's Newman Civic Fellows make clear that they are bringing people together in their communities to solve pressing problems. That is what Campus Compact is about, and it's what our country and our world desperately need.”

The Newman Civic Fellowship is supported by the KPMG Foundation and Newman’s Own Foundation.

About Campus Compact

Campus Compact is a national coalition of 1000+ 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 www.compact.org.

About Alverno College

Alverno College promotes the academic, personal and professional development of its students in a collaborative and inclusive environment. Undergraduate programs for women are offered in more than 60 areas of study, and graduate programs in education, nursing, community psychology and business are open to women and men.

A leader in higher education innovation, Alverno has earned international accolades for its highly effective ability-based, assessment-as-learning approach to education, which emphasizes hands-on experience and develops in-demand skills. The College has consulted with three U.S. presidential administrations on accountability and outcomes in higher education and for the past eight years has been ranked one of the top five schools in the Midwest doing “the best job of educating undergrads” by U.S. News & World Report.

Based in Milwaukee, Wis., Alverno College is a four-year independent, Catholic, liberal arts college.