From the president
Diamoni Davis, a first-year student at Connecticut College, is a student leader concerned with advancing Black American people and strategies to combat their special oppression. He is also a recipient of the competitive Posse Scholarship for the city of Chicago. Through the study of African-American poetry and prose as an English major and through nascent student leadership in affinity groups like the Men of Color Alliance and the Black Student Union, Diamoni aims to exalt the voices and achievements of Black American people. Diamoni additionally volunteers with the Holleran Center for Community Action’s Genesis Mentorship Program, mentoring high school youth in New London, CT. The definition of a scholar-activist, Diamoni has already attended academic meetings to learn about African-American history, literature, culture, and activism such as the Ella Baker Symposium in New York and the 2023 Annual Meeting for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Florida. He continually emphasizes his desire to learn how to create positive change and lead communally by examining lessons from Black American history and rearticulating those examples for today.
Personal Statement
I am tired of seeing the same issues or problems stuck in a time-lapse, causing recurring chaos in its wake. I want to fix economic disparities, I want to debunk the institutions of race, and I want to unify people. That’s why I’m interested in the Newman Civic Fellowship, not because I think I’m a leader but because I’m willing to do what it takes to go beyond change and improve the world. I’m willing to buckle down and solve the problems of the past so they can’t develop in the present to re-manifest in the future. I just don’t want to create positive change, but I want to create long-lasting positive change. I want to create the answer for tomorrow and I feel as if the Newman Civic Fellowship can help me do this.