From the president
Ian Hopkins, a second-year student at Connecticut College, channels artistic practice to address issues of race, representation, and social justice on his campus and in the New London, CT community. As a Summer Civic Leader, he partnered with Spark Makerspace, a local artistic collective, to produce videos that increased the organization’s reach and developed the accessibility of its services. Ian also worked closely with the College’s Crafting Democratic Futures project to organize a multi-media performance, “Voices Across Generations,” which brought to bear issues of age, race, discrimination, and cultural pride in the New London community. He currently volunteers as a mentor with Your Voice Counts, an initiative aimed at developing communication and conflict-management skills among local youth. Ian is a Posse Scholar and a PICA Scholar with an array of interests in social and economic justice, and a proven commitment to coalitional and artistic practice in the service of social good.
Personal Statement
First I'm incredibly grateful just to be nominated for such a fellowship. Over the last 3 years, I have developed a passion for using arts like theater and film to help foster community involvement and civic engagement. Last summer I was able to work with Voices Across Generations, which allowed me to witness first-hand how powerful the arts are at bringing people together. I was able to film a short piece where two people of different generations were able to share their stories of discrimination and racism that occurred years apart but through their storytelling and my filming, were able to bridge the gap and bring them together. I want to be able to use storytelling to help create community and both educate and bring together a wide variety of people and the Newman Civic Fellowship will help me do that to the best of my ability.