Student with Passion for Community Engagement Receives Newman Civic Fellowship

Trinity College’s Anna Grant-Bolton ’25 has received a 2024-25 Newman Civic Fellowship from Campus Compact, a national coalition of colleges and universities working to advance the public purposes of higher education. The fellowship is a yearlong program that recognizes students for their leadership potential and commitment to creating positive change in communities.

A leader of multiple service and advocacy groups at Trinity, Grant-Bolton is pursuing majors in human rights and public policy and law, with a minor in community action.

“I’m excited to connect with and learn from other students who are engaged in social justice work on their own campuses,” Grant-Bolton said. “I think this experience will be essential in helping me to become a better student leader and activist.”

Grant-Bolton said that her passion for social justice comes largely from her parents, who emphasized the importance of caring for others. “As I learned more about systems of injustice and political and social movements, I became interested in applying that idea of care in communities that I’m a part of, both in Hartford and in my hometown of Evanston, Illinois,” she said.

Internships at a legal aid clinic in Evanston and through the Northwestern Prison Education Program inspired Grant-Bolton to learn about ways to address issues of mass incarceration in the criminal justice system. After graduating from Trinity next spring, Grant-Bolton tentatively plans to pursue a master’s degree in social work, focused on policy or political advocacy, along with a master’s in public policy. “I’d eventually like to join a grassroots community organization, ideally in an advocacy, organizing, or policy role,” she said.

Grant-Bolton already has experience leading service and advocacy groups. After taking time in her high school years to help create the Evanston Community Fridges project—through which residents can share food with neighbors in need—Grant-Bolton got involved with restarting Trinity’s food recovery program. Working with the Trinity Homelessness Project, student volunteers pick up trays of leftover food from Chartwell’s and deliver them to ImmaCare, a Hartford homeless shelter just a few blocks from Trinity.

Last year, Grant-Bolton co-founded Students Against Mass Incarceration with Luka de Faria E Castro ’25, Jake Loor ’25, and Reese San Diego ’25. “We are all passionate about issues of mass incarceration in Hartford and beyond,” Grant-Bolton said. “Our goal is to do political education, policy advocacy, and direct aid by partnering with local organizations to deliver resources to currently or formerly incarcerated people.”

Also in 2023, Grant-Bolton and Olivia Silvey ’25 launched TrinDivests. “We’re building support to ask Trinity to take endowment money out of industries of injustice: specifically fossil fuels, mass incarceration, and war,” Grant-Bolton said.

Grant-Bolton also is active in Trinity’s Center for Hartford and Engagement and Research (CHER), which works to strengthen and evaluate academic and co-curricular partnerships between Hartford’s diverse communities and students, staff, and faculty at Trinity. “CHER is like a home for me on campus,” she said. After joining the Community Action Gateway for first-year students, she has enrolled in community action courses, participated in the Liberal Arts Action Lab, and was a community learning research fellow. More recently, Grant-Bolton served as a teaching assistant for the community learning research fellows and as a mentor for the Community Action Gateway.

“I think it’s so beautiful and rewarding to be able to integrate what we learn in class with projects that support and connect with the Hartford community,” Grant-Bolton said. “I really think CHER is a special group of students, staff, and faculty who are working to advance justice in Hartford and at Trinity. I’m grateful to the community there that has supported me in so many ways.”

After completing a semester at the University of Amsterdam this spring through Trinity’s Office of Study Away, Grant-Bolton will return to Illinois to spend another summer with the Northwestern Prison Education Program. The Newman Civic Fellowship begins in September.

Campus Compact provides fellows with programming that emphasizes personal, professional, and civic growth. The cornerstone of the fellowship is the Annual Convening of Newman Civic Fellows, which offers intensive in-person skill-building and networking over three days. Fellows also may apply for exclusive opportunities, including mini-grants to help fund scholarships and post-graduate opportunities.

Newman Civic Fellows are nominated by Campus Compact member presidents and chancellors, who are invited to select one community-committed student from their campus each year. In her nomination, Trinity President Joanne Berger-Sweeney called Grant-Bolton an exemplary civic leader with an unwavering commitment to community engagement and social justice.

“Anna seamlessly integrates academic excellence with community involvement in Hartford, embodying the principles of mutual benefit, co-creation, respect, justice, equity, and accountability that are integral to ethical community engagement,” Berger-Sweeney wrote. “Anna’s academic community-based research projects have also contributed valuable insights to organizations tackling issues like culturally-affirming education, housing injustice, and re-entry challenges for formerly incarcerated women.”

Grant-Bolton added that receiving the Newman Civic Fellowship feels like a testament to the power of grassroots social change. “Being honored with this reminds me that the work we’re doing is meaningful and it’s powerful, even when it’s slow and I don’t see results immediately,” she said. “It’s a reminder to keep on going.”