The University of Wisconsin–Madison is proud to announce Amanjot Kaur as its 2024 Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellow.
The Newman Civic Fellowship is a year-long program that recognizes and supports student public problem solvers at Campus Compact member institutions. Fellows are nominated by their president or chancellor based on their potential for public leadership and their work with communities.
Campus Compact provides Newman Civic Fellows with opportunities for learning and networking virtually and in person. Each opportunity is designed to help students learn to collaborate effectively across disciplines and to apply their skills to directly create positive change in their communities.
Those opportunities include: one-on-one leadership development with a local mentor of their choice, special scholarship and career opportunities, opportunities to present or publish work through Campus Compact and more.
A second-year student double majoring in political science and legal studies, Kaur combines her passion for nonpartisan civic engagement to help organize, engage and mobilize the youth vote in Wisconsin and at UW–Madison.
Kaur has been a community organizer and voting rights advocate dating back to high school. During the 2020 Presidential Election, she helped mobilize students and canvassed thousands of voters in Waukesha county amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In her first year at UW–Madison, she immediately connected with the BadgersVote Coalition.
“Upon entering UW–Madison, I immersed myself further in student organizing and civic engagement,” Kaur says. “As the co-lead intern of BadgersVote, I worked with a passionate intern team to collaborate with various campus organizations, educate students about the importance of voting and provide the necessary resources to ease student participation in the democratic process.”
In addition, Kaur joined Chup! Go Vote, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization focused on the South Asian community to help mobilize South Asian students. She also co-founded the Student Voters Union, a space for students to have a voice in discussions about voting rights issues and elections on campus.
In her personal statement on being nominated for the fellowship, she adds that what makes civic engagement so fulfilling and effective in the Madison community is the ability to center her initiatives around student voices, equity and accessibility.