Recognizing students who stand out for their leadership potential and commitment to creating positive change in their communities, Cami Stevovich, Wittenberg class of 2025, was recently named a Community Campus Coalition (CCC) 2024 Newman Civic Fellow. Stevovich was presented with the award during the University’s Honors Convocation.
Stevovich, from Rocky River, Ohio, joins a group of more than 140 student civic leaders from 38 states, Washington, D.C., and Mexico. The Newman Civic Fellowship is a year-long program for students from CCC, formerly known as Ohio Campus Compact, member institutions. The entire list can be found here: 2024 Newman Civic Fellows.
“As both a volunteer and a scholar, she has built meaningful relationships with organizations serving families and individuals living in poverty. Cami also serves as a peer mentor to Wittenberg students who are passionate about community service, helping them build relationships in our local community and navigate challenges they face while balancing academics and service,” Wittenberg President Michael L. Frandsen, Ph.D. said in his nominating letter. “She is poised to enact meaningful community change by combining her enthusiasm for service and her academic interests in nonprofit economics.”
According to its website, through the fellowship, CCC provides recipients with learning and networking opportunities that help nurture their development as civic leaders. Programming emphasizes personal, professional, and civic growth that can empower them to collaborate effectively across disciplines and 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 three days. The fellowship also provides fellows with pathways to apply for exclusive opportunities, including mini grants to help fund scholarships and post-graduate opportunities.
Stevovich, a junior economics major, is a dedicated and enthusiastic student leader who cares deeply about grassroots community development and poverty alleviation. During the fellowship year, she plans to work with Think Tank, a poverty alleviation organization, to bring the Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE) to Wittenberg’s campus. She plans to host approximately 50 students at the simulation to find out how the experience shapes their perceptions of poverty and philanthropy in order to conduct community-based research on how poverty simulations affect philanthropic behaviors.
“I am a volunteer for the Children’s Rescue Center, an after-school organization that helps children and families with care and provides resources available to them,” said Stevovich, who is also a civic engagement coordinator on campus. “My experiences have led me to understand that poverty alleviation and community growth are the duties of everyone in a community. I want to move beyond volunteerism and work toward holistic community development that includes the voices of people living in poverty. I plan to pursue graduate studies and a career in nonprofit economics to help grow healthy communities and improve the lives of those in need.”
The Newman Civic Fellowship recognizes students who stand out for their commitment to creating positive change in communities locally and around the world. Supported by The Allstate Foundation, whose contributions have allowed the program to expand to include an extended annual convening of Newman Civic Fellows and other special opportunities, including the Newman Civic Fellowship Mini-Grant program, the fellowship is named for the late Frank Newman, one of CCC’s founders, who was a tireless advocate for civic engagement in higher education.
Community Campus Coalition (CCC) is a national coalition of 1,000-plus colleges and universities committed to the public purposes of higher education. A Boston-based nonprofit organization, CCC 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, it provides 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, and celebrate and cultivate student civic leadership. Visit www.compact.org.
