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Raritan Valley Community College student Amber Lindsay of Somerset has been selected as a national Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact in recognition of her commitment to finding solutions for challenges facing communities. Lindsay, a second-year Environmental Science major at RVCC, will join 268 students from across the country for this honor.

Based in Boston, Campus Compact is a non-profit organization working to advance the public purposes of higher education. The Newman Civic Fellowship, named for Campus Compact co-founder Frank Newman, is a one-year experience emphasizing personal, professional, and civic growth. 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

“Amber Lindsay truly embodies the spirt of service at Raritan Valley Community College. As President of the RVCC Environmental Club, and through her participation in service learning environmental science courses, she has pursued her passions with great impact,” said RVCC President Michael J. McDonough.

Lindsay’s many activities at RVCC have included leading a “Little Scientist Night” program in which hundreds of local elementary school students visited the campus for a fun-filled night of science. As part of that effort, she worked with a local non-profit serving under-resourced families. Through fundraising efforts and securing a student enrichment grant, she helped fund a study abroad program in Brazil for RVCC students focusing on environmental science. Lindsay also organized a public event, “From PennEast to Standing Rock: Impacts of Oil and Natural Gas Pipelines on Our Lives,” conducted in partnership with the RVCC Environmental Justice Partnership. The event brought speakers and environmental leaders from a wide variety of conservation and community groups in New Jersey, including the Sierra Club, NJ Conservation Foundation, Pinelands Preservation Alliance, and Rethink Energy NJ.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate and engage with such an extraordinary group of students,” said Campus Compact President Andrew Seligsohn. “The stories of this year's Newman Civic Fellows make clear that they are bringing people together in their communities to solve pressing problems. 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.

Campus Compact is a national coalition of 1000+ colleges and universities committed to the public purposes of higher education. Campus Compact supports institutions in fulfilling their public purposes by deepening their ability to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility. As the largest national higher education association dedicated solely to campus-based civic engagement, it provides professional development to administrators and faculty to enable them to engage effectively, facilitate national partnerships connecting campuses with key issues in their local communities, build pilot programs to test and refine promising models in engaged teaching and scholarship, celebrate and cultivate student civic leadership, and convene higher education institutions and partners beyond higher education to share knowledge and develop collective capacity. Visit www.compact.org.

Raritan Valley Community College’s main campus is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, NJ. Serving Somerset and Hunterdon County residents for close to 50 years, RVCC is an educational and cultural center that is nationally recognized for its innovative programming, service to the community and environmental leadership. The College offers more than 90 associate degrees and certificates, as well as career training, professional development, and adult and youth personal enrichment courses. The College also has a performing arts center and planetarium.

RVCC is committed to offering a quality and affordable education through effective teaching, liaisons with the community’s businesses, and state-of-the-art technology. For further information, visit www.raritanval.edu.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 6, 2018

Media contact: Donna Stolzer, 908-526-1200, ext. 8383

PR #108