‘What Comes Next?’
Finding My Place in the World of Change-making through the Newman Civic Fellowship
By Sherell Farmer ’22
We all have a role to play in making this world a better place.
What this role is, is ultimately the question. It is a question I have wrestled with for years, as I began engaging in social activism work, and it is a question I still deal with every day. This question looms especially large in my head as I, a senior in my second-to-last semester, must answer the question everyone is asking me: What comes next?
The Newman Civic Fellowship is helping me begin to answer this question. As the 2021–22 Newman Civic Fellow from Cornell, I have the immense privilege of learning with and from other engaged student leaders from across the country. While we are all battling this question of what comes next, my peers, my fellow Newman Civic Fellows, prove to me that I should focus less on what job, program, fellowship, etc. I want to do next — but rather, what role I want to play in change-making.
This focus, not on a prestigious job title, but on what I am doing and what I can get done, is radical. It has allowed me to think broadly about what I hope to do, why I hope to do it, and what it will take to get there. My cohort has empowered me, through their smiles, jokes, and stories of pride and belief in the ability of progression to believe in my strength. Through them, I have become sure of my abilities to land on my feet if I stay strong and stay firm in my core belief of doing whatever will allow me to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
I have become sure of my abilities to land on my feet if I stay strong and stay firm in my core belief of doing whatever will allow me to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
To explain why I believe my participation in the fellowship uniquely positioned me to have this realization, it is important to share a bit about this cohort of fellows. My cohort is made up of changemakers doing work across the U.S. in different states and communities and on different issues. While some people are concerned about access to the right to vote, others focus on disability justice, education equity, institutional wrongdoings, and criminal justice. Our answers for how we see our contribution to both the world and to the fellowship are vast and different. Yet, they are all important. They are all born from our unique experiences and perceptions of why we want to make change and what we can bring to the table to get the work done.
The cohort includes graduate students, professional students, parents, students with disabilities, folks in nontraditional schools, and folks from Ivy League schools and other top-ranking institutions. A lot of people in our cohort are ones I would not meet at Cornell, people who are often left out of conversations regarding change-making in our society. In my Cornell classes, it is rare to meet someone who did not go straight from high school to college. Many of my peers, including myself at times, are privileged to think just about their classes. Within the Newman cohort, though, folks think and speak of not just their next exam, but their next critical doctor visit, their children’s needs, their dissertation progress, and their full-time jobs.
In Newman, everyone is included in an equitable manner, and we are encouraged to share and to learn from folks doing work in our respective fields. For example, in our October meeting, we engaged in a critical conversation regarding how we Build Power. In this workshop, through conversations with guest speakers Cameron Conner and Anatole Jenkins, we explored the following questions: how do we harness individual and community power? What does leadership look like?
Both speakers are changemakers in their own right. One speaker is an organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation with a background in neighborhood organizing and international development. The other, the Political Chief of the Democratic National Committee, has played key roles in the campaigns of President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and other major figures in the Democratic Party.
One is taking a stance in leadership through organizing through grassroots and nonprofit organizations, and the other through electoral politics. Yet, as I listened to both speakers, it became clear they both observed positive benefits to their respective constituencies from the work they did. They made clear to me that the only wrong paths are those that would only benefit me. Through these speakers, just as through my cohort, I was reassured that change-making, building power, and being a leader are not about title, position, or field. Rather, these things revolve around one’s ability to touch people and use one’s skills and passions to do good.
In Newman, everyone is included in an equitable manner, and we are encouraged to share and to learn from folks doing work in our respective fields.
These conversations have already begun to make a positive impact on my organizing. As Co-President of Cornell Students 4 Black Lives (C4BL), I am constantly thinking of what I can do to advance Black Life on campus. One way that C4BL does this, externally, is give Black students a space to express grievances and fellowship. However, Newman — by positing critical questions regarding leadership and harnessing power — has changed my perspective on the best way to achieve C4BL’s aims.
Today, we believe the best way to advance Black Life, is to give other Black students and allies the tools to lead themselves. To do this, we host workshops such as “Activism 101,” “How to Equability Engage in Club Recruitment,” and now, a new workshop on Advocating for your mental health as a Black Student. By providing these tools and frameworks, we hope to support our peers as they develop their strengths so that they work together and use their voices for good.
With these lessons in mind — from both the rest of my Newman cohort and from so many of the exceptional guest speakers and workshop leaders we’ve engaged with — I’m walking into the rest of this year with confidence. Finding what I’m doing next is scary, but I am confident that in focusing on what will allow me to touch the most people, to do the most good, I will find my place in the world of change-making.
Sherell Farmer ’22 is an ILRie representing Cornell University in the 2021–22 Newman Civic Fellowship cohort. In her free time, she enjoys watching ASMR videos, listening to spoken word poetry and obsessing over Summer Walker & SZA. On campus, she works for Campus Activities, is a Residential Advisor, and is Co-President of Cornell Students 4 Black Lives and the Undergraduate Labor Institute.
Related links
- Newman Civic Fellow works for meaningful change, Cornell Chronicle, March 24, 2021
- Sherell Farmer’s Newman Civic Fellow profile
