CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Three juniors and two seniors have been named the first Civic Leadership Fellows at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Civic Leadership Program is a new initiative of the department of political science and is being run in conjunction with its new Center for the Study of Democratic Governance.
The fellows are Andrea M. Alvarez, junior in history and political science from Geneva, Ill.; Mark C. Brown, junior in history and philosophy from Champaign; Merrin Permut, junior in political science and psychology from Roanoke, Va.; Emily Renwick, senior in political science from Champaign; and Kasey Umland, senior in economics and political science from Monee, Ill.
The fellows will enroll in new courses in public policy, political economy and ethics that are designed to “enhance their capacities to become leaders on the world stage,” said James D. Nowlan, the director of the Civic Leadership Program.
In addition, the fellows will be paired with prominent Senior Fellows, a group chaired by Jim Edgar, a former governor of Illinois; James D. Bindenagel, a U.S. ambassador appointed by President Bill Clinton and currently the vice president of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations; and former Fortune 500 CEO Richard Cline.
Fellows will complete bachelor’s degrees in their current fields, then leave campus in the second semester of their senior years for an internship, which could be anywhere in the world. They will return for a one-year master’s degree in political science with a focus on civic leadership. In the master’s program, the fellows will take part in a yearlong public policy practicum that will produce an analysis with options and recommendations.
In the first semester of their graduate work, fellows will go to Washington, D.C., for a weeklong series of meetings and workshops with members of Congress, high-ranking officials in the administration, media executives and U. of I. alumni.
At the beginning of each fall semester, the Civic Leadership Program will recruit applications from juniors across all disciplines on the Urbana campus for up to 15 fellowships. Prerequisites in economics, political science and related fields are encouraged, but not required of applicants in the first years of the program.
All of the new fellows have distinguished themselves academically, and all are active in leadership roles on campus, Nowlan said.
• Alvarez is president of Delta Zeta Sorority, and in the summer of 2004, presented research findings in history at the McNair Research Symposium at the University of Chicago;
• Brown is a Chancellor’s Scholar and the president of Sigma Pi Fraternity;
• Permut is the president of Chi Omega Sorority and served in the summer of 2004 as an assistant to a member of Parliament in the United Kingdom through the campus Parliamentary Internship Program;
• Renwick has studied in France as well as in Washington, D.C., and plans to study in Bombay during the coming semester break;
• Umland is campus co-chair of Amnesty International and works in the Illinois Leadership Center in the Illini Union.
More information about the Civic Leadership Program can be found online. Nowlan can be reached at 217-333-0364.
