From the president
Nayle Garces is a third-year student at Loras College majoring in Political Science and Social Work. She is an accomplished student leader, activist, and self- advocate. The experience, drive, and passion Nayle brings to educating her fellow students about equity and justice is commendable. During her Newman fellowship Nayle plans to expand and improve student-led training in the Loras College Civic Leaders program by creating train the trainer materials that can continued to be used by the Civic Leaders and can be scaled out to other groups of students at Loras, year after year, to prepare to them to work in teams with city departments and local non-profit organizations on projects focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, in support of the City of Dubuque’s Comprehensive Plan, Imagine Dubuque. Beyond her work and service as a Civic Leader at Loras College, Nayle has invested her time in serving in the student chapter of the League of United American Citizens (LULAC) and served as a mentor and program assistant to multiple classes of first year students in first year seminar classes.
Personal Statement
Growing up with a single immigrant mother, equity has always been shown to me. I never fully grasped the definition of equity until my mother had to get help from the government to help feed my siblings and me. When I started college, I heard negative narratives of people who use the welfare system, claiming people needed to get better jobs and are taking advantage of the system. Those words hurt me because I knew that it was not true in my life. Instead of dwelling on it, I thought to myself I need to educate others about equality and justice. In Civic Leaders at Loras College, I have facilitated equity training to my peers and found this helps all of us challenge the biases we each hold and reframe our perceptions of others. In this role, I have helped others learn how their biases may be negatively impacting people like my family. I am looking forward to my experience as a Newman Fellow and how it will contribute to expanding my current efforts to educate others. Working alongside people who share my vision of educating others about equity has impacted my future goal of becoming a civil attorney.