Courtesy of @HolleranCC on Instagram
This summer, the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy led the largest cohort yet of its Summer Civic Leaders program. 18 students were placed between eight community partners for a six-week program designed to encourage ethical community engagement and relationships between the College and the city of New London. According to the College website, another goal of the program is to “develop long-term commitment and involvement in civic-engagement within the New London community.”
As a result of a partnership between Connecticut College and the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, the Summer Civic Leaders program began in 2020 to re-engage students with New London and support non-profit organizations, as most community engagement initiatives halted during the pandemic. With only five students enrolled, the program’s pilot year acted as a semi-virtual trial run, in which students worked with the on-campus Sprout Garden, the Homeless Hospitality Center, and the New London Public Library (NLPL). In 2023, after the end of the initial three-year agreement, the Community Foundation partnered with the Holleran Center yet again to expand funding for the program and accommodate the current 18 students, the largest cohort yet.
After applying and expressing their specific interests in different fields and methods of engagement, students were placed in teams with one of the Holleran Center’s community partners. This year, students worked with a diverse group of local organizations, including the Alliance for Living, New London Homeless Hospitality Center, Thames River Heritage Park, Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity, New London Recreation, Spark Makerspace, Horizons Beyond High School, and the Southeastern CT Community Land Trust. In addition to the work at their placements, students attended workshops and cohort-building outings in and around New London. A weekly seminar with Holleran Center Faculty Director and Professor of Sociology Ronald Flores explored topics such as New London history, ethical community engagement, leadership, professionalism, social justice, and effective organizing and social change. At the end of the six weeks, students presented their projects, work, and personal findings to Holleran Center staff, organization leaders, and community members.
As the program grows, students have had the opportunity to work with an increasingly diverse group of community partners, and this year, their final projects displayed the wide variety of experiences students had throughout the summer intensive. For example, Owyn Ledina ‘25 and Elvin Li ‘27 worked with Alliance for Living to help connect community members with NLPL resources and assisted in organizing their annual Pride event that offered fun community-based activities as well as free HIV testing. For Horizons Beyond High School, Araceli Alcaide ‘25, Krystal Alvarado Bocanegra ‘26, and Wilson Hernandez ‘26 ran a ten-day postsecondary support program for underserved New London High School students and worked to expand the program to accommodate further numbers. Joshua Caskey ‘27 and Ava Gebhart ‘27, working with the Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity, helped publicize data on who makes housing decisions in Connecticut and assisted in connecting people with their local planning and zoning committees. With the Thames River Heritage Park, Angelina Pierro ‘27 and Theo Andres ‘27 worked to establish the College and the Native American burial grounds on campus as a historical site and connect Conn students with the region’s history.
Rebecca McCue, Director of Community Engagement and Holleran Center Operations, and one of the Summer Civic Leaders coordinators, commented that the program was intended as a unique opportunity for “students… to fully dedicate themselves to their projects, which can rarely happen during the school year.” The summertime program also acts as a mechanism to engage Conn students not involved in the Holleran Center’s group of PICA (Program in Community Action) scholars with the New London community, and give students from all of the pathways and centers the opportunity to ground their work and passions in community action. Even beyond the six weeks of summer the program encompasses, students frequently continue their work with community placements throughout their time in New London, inside and outside Holleran Center programs. McCue says, “I love seeing students whose paths maybe wouldn’t have crossed with the Holleran Center throughout their four years all of the sudden now making these connections in New London, and having these incredible experiences.”
