In July 2018, the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships (JCCP) will end the Civic Engagement Fellowship. This was a one-year position for recent graduates to foster civic engagement on Wesleyan’s campus in a variety of ways. In an 2012 Argus article, former director of JCCP Cathy Lechowicz said “our students are so engaged when they’re here as undergrads…we really see this additional year as an opportunity to capture that energy and excitement while also helping the student gain this professional experience in a context that they know really well.”

Since the Fellowship was launched in 2012, six Fellows have worked for the JCCP and have supported the work of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life,the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Service-Learning, and the Civic Engagement Certificate. Director of the Patricelli Center Makaela Kingsley had this to say about the Fellowship: “Each Civic Engagement Fellow has brought a unique set of skills, passions, and life experiences to the Allbritton team, and each one left a distinct mark on Wesleyan’s civic engagement work. When we hired our first Fellow in 2012/2013, I did not realize just how much this annual turn-over would contribute to the growth and evolution of Allbritton. I am grateful for the perspectives and productivity of each of the six Civic Engagement Fellows. We could not have accomplished nearly as much as we have without Dana, Jelisa, Rosy, Jennifer, Rebecca, and Rhea.”

Much of the current work of the Fellow will be moved to the Coordinator for Community Participation, a newly created permanent position at the JCCP.

We caught up with the five former Fellows to learn about the work they did as well as where are they are now.

 

Dana Pellegrino

Class Year: 2012
Major: American Studies

What was your day-to-day work like as a Fellow?:
As the inaugural fellow (tooting that horn), I primarily worked on building an online presence for ENGAGE. Relatedly, I worked with Cathy Lechowicz on developing marketing and branding strategies for ENGAGE, and how to best coalesce all of the then-up-and-coming initiatives (e.g., the Patricelli Center, the Civic Engagement Certificate, the Albritton Center).
Day-to-day, after catching up with Ying-Fei Chen about the latest “Call the Midwife” episode, I would check our social media accounts, meet with Cathy about a project, counsel students looking for community service opportunities, problem-solve with the Student Staff, and sometimes, drive the OCS van (if absolutely necessary, hah).

What was your most memorable moment?:
Towards the end of my Fellowship, Cathy and I were invited to visit a Retirement/Nursing Home about 20 minutes north of Middletown.
During our tour several staff members expressed the extreme need for student volunteers. The staff brought us to lunch and we were joined by an elderly man, who became visibly emotional telling us stories from his earlier years.
To be there, to listen to the staff members who so desired interaction for their patients, and to listen to the patients, was moving. I knew that showing the community that “Wesleyan” was listening was indispensable, and that being present and open to collaboration for our neighbors is critical.

What have you been up to since then?:
Following my Fellowship I attended Duke Law School and am now an Intellectual Property lawyer at Duane Morris LLP in NYC. I work as part of a wonderful team that focuses on trademark and copyright law. I’m lucky that my firm has a nationally-recognized pro bono practice and am proud to say last year I devoted 100+ pro bono hours to civic engagement-related initiatives.

Do you feel like your focus on civic engagement at Wesleyan influenced you?:
100%. It’s hard to put into words, but the focus really gave me a fundamental objective to empathize and listen to people before speaking, whether I work with them, have them as clients, or meet them in NYC. I think also as a lawyer civic engagement is critical to equity and informs just application of the law.

 

Jelisa Adair

Class Year: 2013
Majors: Psychology and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

What was your day-to-day work like as a Fellow?:
I worked very closely with Diana Martinez with the Office of Community Service and with Makaela Kingsley of the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship. On a typical day I might have a meeting with OCS student staff, work on planning an event for the PCSE such as the Alumni Start-Up Showcase, write a blog post for the WesEngage blog, and/or do some social media outreach and promotion for JCCP.

What was your most memorable moment?:
JCCP celebrated its 10 year anniversary during my tenure and that celebration was incredibly memorable for me. It was a beautiful ceremony and both Michael Roth and Dan Drew came to speak!

What have you been up to since then?:
After completing my fellowship I enrolled in Boston University’s School of Social Work and in 2016 I graduated with my MSW. During my time in graduate school I interned both at a women’s educational program and at Framingham State University. I also did some work with a local social services agency providing case management to low-income individuals and families in the Somerville area. After graduating I pursued my desire to work in higher education and I currently work at Emerson College’s Counseling and Psychological Services as a staff clinician. I love my work with my clients and have also enjoyed engaging with Emerson as a community member. About a year ago I adopted a cat, and I can’t resist giving a shout-out to Morgan! 

Do you feel like your focus on civic engagement at Wesleyan influenced you?:
I do feel that my focus on civic engagement has continued to influence me since my time at Wesleyan. Civic engagement is very important to me and I make it a priority to be involved in my community. Currently I do some work with the Boston Liberation Health organization, and this work helps me stay accountable to my community through political action and activism. I believe that it was my own interest in civic engagement that led to me pursuing social work and I hope that this interest continues to guide me in both my career and my personal aspirations as I move forward.

 
Rosy Capron

Class Year: 2014
Major: College of Social Studies

What was your day-to-day work like as a Fellow?:
Most days involved planning or promoting events, helping out with OCS operations, and hunting for opportunities to include in the newsletter or to mention to students. I put on a few special events, like an alumni panel, discussion series, community engagement fair, and campus visit for middle schoolers. I’m also grateful that I could follow Cathy, Makaela, and Diana around to meetings with campus and community partners — I learned so much from shadowing them, and from working closely with Rob Rosenthal, Ying-Fei Chen, Barbara Juhasz and Shannon Nelson.

What was your most memorable moment?:
The Black Lives Matter march in December 2014 was an interesting and challenging moment to be a staff member. The study breaks and holiday parties that Diana Martinez host for the service group leaders are very fond memories, partly because I got to hear students’ thoughtful reflections, and because Diana put effort into every detail. Once she threw together a Thanksgiving feast out of paper (see “drumstick” photo), in addition to real food of course. It sounds silly but it was exactly what I needed that day. She models the importance of showing appreciation for volunteers and other loved ones, building community, and making time for fun, even when (or especially when) social justice work feels draining or disheartening.

What have you been up to since then?:
After the fellowship, I took on a similar role supporting student groups at the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford. Now I’m on the education programs team at Adobe, based in San Francisco. I focus on the certification program for our digital design tools, which helps educators prepare their students for creative careers. Similarly to how the JCCP and Patricelli Center strive to keep the Wesleyan education relevant to community needs, I play a small part in making high school and college curriculums more relevant to the needs of the workforce. I love it!

Do you feel like your focus on civic engagement at Wesleyan influenced you?:
Absolutely. As a student, having contact with “the outside world” through tutoring, attending off-campus events, or collaborating with “real adults” helped to keep things in perspective. After graduation, I wanted to help students have similarly rejuvenating, illuminating experiences. As for the fellowship, I couldn’t have asked for a better mentors or a better crash course in project management, communication, and humility. Thanks for everything!

 

Jennifer Roach

Class Year: 2014
Majors: Environmental Studies and the Science in Society Program
(Followed by University of Connecticut School of Nursing Class of 2017)

Each week as a Fellow flowed around meetings with each of the departments, the Tuesday newsletter, students events in the evenings, and seasonal events with the school calendar. I most enjoyed putting together community conversations around issues that were popping up in media at the time. The office also did a lot to support the students working in the Office of Community Service. This started with events during admitted students day and during orientation. My absolute favorite event, though, was when Diana Martinez and I planned a study break for the student staff during finals. The theme was “Master of None.” We turned the room into a little movie theater, played the entire season, and served every food featured in the show. During my fellowship, I started working with the Wesleyan Doula Project and trained to become a volunteer abortion doula. That summer, I volunteered every Friday. Working with that program helped me find a career path in public health. I finished nursing school in December, 2017. Now I am working as a nurse in Boston and applying to midwifery programs for the fall. On to the next challenge!

 

Rebecca Jacobsen

Class Year: 2016
Majors: Chemistry, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry

What was your day-to-day work like as a Fellow?:
I honestly sent a lot of emails, like the weekly newsletter, and helped manage a lot of logistics. Some of the more exciting parts were getting to be a part of Makaela’s Patricelli Center Fellowship and Rob’s Community Research Seminar. With Makaela, I helped her launch the first year of the class and worked closely with some students as they developed their projects and pitches and applied for funding. With Rob (and Peggy), I helped a group of students research the impact of service-learning classes at Wesleyan since his class began as the first one in the 1990s. This was especially fun for me, since I took Peggy’s Health of Communities service-learning class during my junior year, and it was by far one of the most influential courses I took while at Wesleyan.

What was your most memorable moment?:
My most memorable moment was probably standing up in front of a group of students as their ‘instructor’ for the very first time. Most of them were within a year or two of my age, and it felt pretty surreal to get in front of them and lead the discussion (especially since I felt like I had no clue what I was doing!). Also, helping Makaela plan the Patricelli Center Seed Grant pitches was a very memorable event for me.

What have you been up to since then?:
I just finished my first year of medical school at the University of Virginia. I’m working on a research project this summer studying the impact of resilience and wisdom on medical students’ perceived feelings of burnout. If all goes well, I’ll be Dr. Jacobsen just in time for my 5-year Wes reunion!

Do you feel like your focus on civic engagement at Wesleyan influenced you?:
Definitely. I hope to work as a physician alongside those who are underserved by our current healthcare system to improve or maintain what a ‘healthy life’ means to them. I’m especially interested in how structural factors, like access to safe housing and healthy foods, impact someone’s health over their lifetime, and things we can do to make these things more accessible for everyone.