Claremont, Calif. (April 5, 2012)—Pitzer College student Nicholas Romo ’14 has been named a 2012 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact, a national coalition of college and university presidents who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. The Newman Civic Fellows Award recognizes inspiring college student leaders who have worked to find solutions for challenges facing their communities.
Romo, a political studies and sociology major, is the Native American program student coordinator at Pitzer’s Community Engagement Center, where he organizes events concerning indigenous issues and Native American youth. He worked with the AmeriCorps Jumpstart program and helped implement Jumpstart curriculum in a preschool for low-income youth. A research assistant for Assistant Professor of Sociology Erich Steinman, Romo has also been active with Pitzer’s Latino Student Union and is a member of the College’s diversity committee on campus.
Romo said civic participation and open inquiry “are essential to the upkeep and shaping of our democracy.”
“It is important to be involved in local and global communities as a form of civic participation and an honest exploration of the complex social world that we live in,” Romo said. “The faculty and staff here at Pitzer have challenged me to dig deeper to understand the multi-dimensional and multi-layered aspects of complex social issues and have encouraged me to take action, to be socially responsible and personalize issues in search of social justice.”
Campus Compact named 162 students from 32 states as 2012 Newman Civic Fellows. For more information about the organization and the award, visit www.compact.org