Campus Compact has named Jovani Mendez-Sandoval '22 a recipient of a Newman Civic Fellowship, which recognizes and supports community-oriented students and is named for Frank Newman, a founder of Campus Compact.
Jovani Mendez-Sandoval ’22 has been named a Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact in recognition of his extensive service to the university and surrounding community and his development as a leader.
A Leadership Fellow and an Odyssey Program scholar, Mendez-Sandoval is originally from Raleigh, N.C. He has collaborated with the Alamance Chamber of Commerce to facilitate Alamance Youth Leadership Academy workshops for middle-school students to help them identify their leadership potential and learn how to empower others.
“Jovani shows a commitment to his own learning and development by engaging leadership education and development workshops, trainings and experiential activities,” Elon President Connie Ledoux Book said in supporting Mendez-Sandoval’s nomination for the Newman Civic Fellows program. “It is through these programs that Jovani gains a better understanding of himself as a leader, how to lead with others, and how to make an impact on his community.
The Newman Civic Fellowship is a yearlong program for students from Campus Compact member institutions. The students selected for the fellowship are leaders on their campuses who demonstrate a commitment to finding solutions for challenges facing communities locally, nationally and internationally.
As a student and researcher, Mendez-Sandoval has focused on his attention on analyzing the experiences of Central American immigrants placed in U.S. detention centers and the coping mechanisms they employed in response to stressors and trauma.
“My undergraduate research has granted me the opportunity to present my findings at a local and national level to bring awareness of an unjust legal system that violates the human rights of Latin American immigrants in U.S. detention centers,” Mendez-Sandoval says in his personal statement for the Newman Civic Fellows program.
Mendez-Sandoval is part of a cohort of 290 fellows selected for 2020 that will receive a variety of learning and networking opportunities as well as pathways to exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.
Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides the students with a variety of learning and networking opportunities that emphasize personal, professional, and civic growth. Each year, Fellows are invited to a national, in-person conference of Newman Civic Fellows and participate in numerous virtual training and networking opportunities. The fellowship also provides fellows with pathways to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.
“We are proud to recognize each of these extraordinary student leaders and thrilled to have the opportunity to engage with them,” said Campus Compact President Andrew Seligsohn. “The stories of this year’s Newman Civic Fellows make clear that they are committed to finding solutions to pressing problems in their communities and beyond. That is what Campus Compact is about, and it’s what our country and our world desperately need.”
Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than 1,000 college and university presidents — representing some 6 million students — who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility. Named for Campus Compact founder Frank Newman, the Newman Civic Fellows Award recognizes students who are passionate about making lasting change in their communities.
The Newman Civic Fellowship is supported by the KPMG Foundation and Newman’s Own Foundation. Learn more at compact.org/newman-civic-fellowship. Read more about the students comprising the 2020-2021 cohort at compact.org/newman-civic-fellowship/2020-2021-newman-civic-fellows.