The Class of 2025 Civic Scholars congregated at Holmes Lounge on Monday, Oct. 21 to present on their Civic Summers at the annual Civic Scholars Share Out, before their advisors, mentors, community partners, family, and friends.
Dewitt Campbell, Manager of Civic Learning Initiatives at the Gephardt Institute, kicked off the ceremony by welcoming attendees.
“I’m thrilled to welcome you to this year’s Civic Scholars Share-Out,” he began. “The Civic Scholars Program is a two-year civic leadership program during which students build knowledge and skills around community engagement and receive funding to pursue a full-time Civic Summer of their own design.”
The program also includes two years of intensive coursework, experiential learning, civic skill building, leadership training, and mentorship to prepare Civic Scholars for a life dedicated to civic and community engagement. Civic Scholars receive a summer stipend to support a substantial civic project or internship during the summer between junior and senior year.
Presentations at the Share Out followed a PechaKucha-style presentation format. Each student presented 15 slides for 20 seconds each, for a total of five minutes.
Taylor Robinson, a Fox-Clark Civic Scholar spent her Civic Summer with Affinia Healthcare’s Midwifery Department in Ferguson, Missouri. Affinia has provided primary and preventive health services to the residents of St. Louis for over 100 years.
Robinson completed educational handouts and curated social media posts to spread awareness and health information. She was able to shadow two family nurse practitioners, learning throughout the experience what a holistic process midwifery is.
“Hopefully one day, I can become a part of the small but increasing number of black women OB GYN in the United States and hopefully contribute to programs that increase the access of adequate care,” said Robinson. “Specifically maternal care to underserved communities.”
Hieran Andeberhan, a Fox-Clark Civic Scholar, spent her Civic Summer working as an intern at the Eastern District of Missouri federal courthouse, where she had the opportunity to support the Sentencing Alternatives Improving Lives (SAIL) program under the mentorship of District Judge Audrey Fleissig and Magistrate Judge Shirley Mensah.
The SAIL program is a post plea sentence diversion program that works to address the issues of mass incarceration and high recidivism rates, aiming to focus on the underlying problems that caused individuals to engage in illegal activities.
As an intern, Andeberhan created resource guides related to job training and employment affordable housing and domestic violence shelters to support our members who were able to utilize these services.
“This summer, I learned so much. Not only about diversion programs such as SAIL and about how the federal court system operates,” said Andeberhan. “But most importantly about the importance of humanizing people and hearing their stories.
Jade Zhang, a Stern Family Civic Scholar, spent her summer at the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights at the Environmental Protection Agency Region Five headquarter in Chicago. She worked on their Environment Justice Academy program, which helps Academy participants cultivate skills to show environmental challenges and carry out environmental improvement goals in their communities.
Zhang helped her supervisors and team in planning and facilitating educational modules, reaching out to speakers, and coordinating logistics. The educational modules focused on topics from the grant application process to collaborative problem solving, continually highlighting the importance of experiential learning.
“I grew a lot personally and professionally this summer through my mentors and by just talking to community members,” said Zhang. “It really reinvigorated my belief in the power of community organizing and equitable environmental justice efforts.”
At the conclusion of the Civic Scholars Share Out, a video message was delivered by Dr. Dwayne T. James, co-instructor for this Civic Scholars cohort: “Keep being amazing, keep making that impact, stay in the fight, understanding that civic journeys, civic engagement, is not always easy, but knowing that you are strong enough, you are talented enough to do the work.”
“Our world doesn’t always give me hope for the future, but I can’t help but being hopeful and excited for our collective future when I know that folks like you will soon be taking the reins of our world,” said Campbell, addressing the Civic Scholars at the conclusion of the share-out. “Thank you for giving me hope.”
The Civic Scholars Program is supported by generous donations to the Gephardt Institute. If you would like to make a gift to support the Civic Scholars Program, please click here or contact Alex Jackson at jalex@wustl.edu.