Campus Compact Announces 2023 Newman Civic Fellows
154 students honored for their commitment to solving public problems

May 10, 2023 – Campus Compact, a national coalition of colleges and universities working to advance the public purposes of higher education, has named 154 student civic leaders from 38 states, Washington, D.C., and Mexico to the 2023 cohort of Newman Civic Fellows. The Newman Civic Fellowship recognizes students who stand out for their commitment to creating positive change in communities locally and around the world. Fellows are nominated by Campus Compact member presidents and chancellors, who are invited to select one outstanding student from their campus each year.

The 2023-2024 cohort of Fellows includes students from four institutions across Kentucky. Kentucky Campus Compact is excited to congratulate the following students who have been named Newman Civic Fellows public problem solvers: 

Halle Gensler, Berea College
Phoenix Hanratty, Bellarmine University
Lucy Swenson, Centre College
Kayla Young, Lindsey Wilson College

Through the fellowship, Campus Compact will provide these students with a year of learning and networking opportunities that emphasize personal, professional, and civic growth. Each year, 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 cornerstone of the fellowship is the Annual Convening of Newman Civic Fellows, which offers intensive in-person skill-building and networking over the course of two days. The fellowship also provides fellows with pathways to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.

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.

“We are honored to recognize such an outstanding group of community-committed students,” said Campus Compact President Bobbie Laur. “One of the best parts of the Newman Civic Fellowships is the richness of students’ perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds—and how these varied stories all led to their passionate engagement with the social, political, and environmental issues impacting our world. These students will be the catalysts for change on many levels, and we are privileged to help empower them to create that change.”

You can read more about each of the student leaders selected for this year’s cohort at https://compact.org/news/campus-compact-announces-2023-newman-civic-fellows.

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Kentucky Campus Compact (KyCC) was created in 2005 by a task force of Kentucky college and university presidents and has been housed at Northern Kentucky University since January 2006. KyCC views colleges and universities as vital agents and architects of a diverse democracy, committed to educating students for responsible citizenship in ways that both deepen their education and improve the quality of community life. We challenge all of higher education to make civic and community engagement an institutional priority. Striving to advance the public purposes of colleges and universities by deepening their ability to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility is the mission of KyCC. We work towards this goal by addressing the areas of College Access, College Success, and Community Impact.

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 www.compact.org.

Please address all media inquiries to:

Molly Leiper, Director of Communications
mleiper {at} compact(.)org