Pictured above, the Four Freedoms Fellows are (front row, from left to right): Amelia Enberg, Danielle Cooperstock and Christopher Mich and (back row, from left to right): Roselyn Abassah-Manu, Patricia Mickey, Sean Anderson, Connor Reilly and LeeAnn Revis.
CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–October 1, 2014. Eight Roosevelt University students have been selected for the University’s new Four Freedoms Fellowship Program, a year-long initiative that will be providing them with training in how to make positive change to their communities, our society and the world.
A poet/playwright, a single mother who is also a suburban school board member, an international student from Ghana, and an entrepreneur who recycles discarded cell phones for the benefit of the less fortunate in Kenya and Haiti, are among the inaugural class of Four Freedoms Fellows who will receive training in leadership, public speaking and advocacy during the 2014-15 academic year.
The program is named after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous 1941 Four Freedoms Speech, in which he encouraged Americans to be conscious of their stake in preserving the nation’s democracy. As such, the fellowship aims to deepen students’ knowledge of the political landscape, imparting effective strategies for influencing decision makers and providing coaching in how to powerfully articulate personal stories that can be a tool for positive change.
“This also is an opportunity for our fellows to take a leadership role in Roosevelt advocacy efforts and to develop skills to further the causes they care about most,” said Jennifer Tani, assistant vice president for community engagement.
The inaugural class of Four Freedoms Fellows includes:
Roselyn Abassah-Manu, 26, a Master’s in Public Administration student and a native of Ghana who did research and preparation as a worker in Ghana’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for the launch of the country’s first private-public investment policy. Abassah-Manu plans to pursue a doctorate in Public Administration after graduating from Roosevelt in 2015.
Sean Anderson, 22, an undergraduate Business Management major and native of Naperville, Ill., who is a student board member of the Illinois State Board of Higher Education. Anderson has a keen interest in making a difference on issues regarding the cost of college and student loan debt. An aspiring strategist who is focused on business, public affairs and politics, Anderson is expected to graduate in 2016.
Danielle Cooperstock, 22, an undergraduate Social Justice major and native of Ann Arbor, Mich, who chose Roosevelt because of its social justice mission. Cooperstock is a member of the student activist group, RISE, and has also been a student worker assisting students with disabilities and a peer mentor providing student tutoring. She will graduate in May 2015, and is looking into the possibility of joining the Peace Corps, Teach for America or Americorps.
Amelia Enberg, 21, an undergraduate Integrated Marketing Communications major and native of Muskegon, Mich., who is an inaugural member of the Roosevelt Lakers women’s softball team, playing left field. Enberg is also a former member of the Delta Gamma Pi Multicultural Sorority, where she has served as marketing chair, vice president and dean of new students and also has been active with Colleges Against Cancer. She will graduate in May 2015 and hopes to work abroad in advertising.
Christopher Mich, 30, a first-generation adult student majoring in Computer Science and a native of Mundelein, Ill., who sits on Roosevelt’s Board of Trustees and is a member of the University’s Student Government Association. Mich became interested in pursuing a college degree after taking a full-time job with Roosevelt’s Information Technology Department, and since then has become one of the University’s most active students. He will graduate in 2016.
Patricia Mickey, 42, an honors student in English and Creative Writing and a poet/playwright who lives in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. Mickey received a Gilman Fellowship and recently studied abroad in Costa Rica. She also was a Roosevelt Institute Fellow who worked on sustainability issues as an intern with Faith in Place. She will graduate in 2016.
Connor Reilly, 21, an undergraduate Finance major and a native of Edgerton, Wis., who is a resident assistant on the Global Village floor of Roosevelt’s Wabash Building student housing. In 2012, Reilly started a nonprofit, Global Mobal, which ships discarded cell phones to Kenya and Haiti for reuse by people without financial resources. An intern with the Executives’ Club of Chicago, he recently traveled to Haiti where he conducted research with Roosevelt pharmacy faculty members on pharmacy practices in low-resource clinics and hospitals, and returned to the country last spring to implement an online computerized inventory system at a local pharmacy. He will graduate in May 2015.
LeeAnn Revis, 47, a single mother of four teens and an undergraduate Social Justice major who lives in south suburban Lansing, Ill. Revis is in her second term as a Thornton Fractional Township District 215 School Board member, currently serving as the board’s vice president. An honors student, Revis hopes to work as a public policy advocate on behalf of labor and labor issues and/or get involved with politics after graduating from the University in December 2015.
Source: roosevelt.edu
