Written by: TFVstaff • April 1, 2019• In Our Schools

Local College Student Named Newman Civic Fellow

Miami Dade College (MDC) student Fiorenza Herrera Diaz has been named Campus Compact 2019 Newman Civic Fellow, a prestigious national distinction that recognizes and supports community-committed students who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country. Campus Compact is a Boston-based nonprofit working to advance the public purposes of higher education.

Herrera Diaz is a second-year student in MDC’s Honors College who has excelled academically and is a demonstrated civic leader and problem-solver. She has a 4.0 GPA and has led numerous civic activities on behalf of the College. She serves as an Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere Ambassador and has organized a myriad of voter registration and voter education activities and was instrumental in helping two MDC campuses be designated as early voting sites for the first time in history. She serves as President of the Changemaking Ambassador Council, a college-wide initiative. Herrera Diaz is also president of the Financial Literacy Club and helped implement the Up to Us program to educate her peers about solutions to the national debt. Likewise, she is part of the team that won first place at the American Bar Association’s Social Justice Hackathon for their solution to improve the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color, and she was selected to attend the 2018 Clinton Global Initiative University. She currently attends MDC’s Wolfson Campus and will graduate this May. She aspires to transfer to Georgetown University and major in international economics or international development with the hope to work for the United Nations or The World Bank in the future.

“In her work as a student leader at MDC, Fiorenza has inspired and engaged others and has proven that she not only has the motivation but also the potential for effective and long-term civic engagement. She represents the best of the best of this new generation of up and coming civic leaders that our nation so desperately needs,” said MDC’s President Dr. Eduardo Padrón.

The Newman Civic Fellowship, named for Campus Compact co-founder Frank Newman, is a one-year experience emphasizing personal, professional, and civic growth for students who have demonstrated a capacity for leadership and an investment in solving public problems. Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The fellowship also provides fellows with access 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,” added Campus Compact’s 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.”

The Newman Civic Fellowship is supported by the KPMG Foundation and Newman’s Own Foundation.

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