Seahawk Spotlight: winning letter to an elected official, advocating for Indigenous rights, African American women and career advancement, and a grant for WagnerVotes

Kendall Tabobandung named 2024-2025 Newman Civic Fellow

Kendall Tabobandung, a junior history major and lacrosse player, has been named a 2024-2025 Newman Civic Fellow. Fellows are nominated by presidents or chancellors at Campus Compact member institutions based on their community commitment and potential for public leadership.

As a fellow, Tabobandung will have access to various learning opportunities, including competitive mini-grant funding opportunities for social impact projects, monthly online leadership webinars, and a mentorship program. Fellows will also have access to exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.

“My journey is dedicated to protecting the legacy of my people by preserving our culture and language,” said Tabobandung, who is from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario, Canada. “As an advocate for Indigenous rights, I am committed to amplifying awareness on critical issues such as Truth and Reconciliation for Indian residential/boarding schools and addressing the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.”

The Annual Convening of Newman Civic Fellows will be held in November in Chicago.

Jazzmine Clarke-Glover earns doctor of business administration

Jazzmine Clarke-Glover, Wagner’s Vice President of Workplace Culture and Inclusion​​, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Diversity Officer and Title IX Coordinator, recently graduated from Temple University’s Fox School of Business doctor of business administration. She defended her dissertation, “Journey to the Top: Marginalized Intersected Identity Effects on African American Women’s Career Advancement,” earlier this year.

Clarke-Glover received her BA in sociology from Boston College and an MS in industrial and labor relations from Baruch College. She has been an active member in the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources’ New York Metro chapter for more than five years, where she has served in various roles and now serves as the Past President. She is also a member and advocacy leader for the Society of Human Resources Management, and she is a member of various other HR organizations. Also active in her community, she enjoys volunteering for various projects through NY Cares and through her church, The Brooklyn Tabernacle.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Clarke-Glover.

3 Wagner students win Project Pericles competition

Bianca DiMarco ’25, Jordan Esposito ’25 and Lillian McNally ’26 were members of one of the winning teams for Project Pericles’ Debating for Democracy Letter to an Elected Official Competition this spring. The competition involved writing letters to advocate for policy improving public safety, education rights and racial equity and sustainability.

In their letter, addressed to Assemblyman Michael Reilly, the students called for a “Student Protection Act” that would require middle and high schools to build self-defense training classes into their curriculum. The students originally wrote the letter as an assignment for the Sociology of Gender class taught by Bernadette Ludwig, who supported the students as they revised it for the competition.

“The implementation of self-defense programs in middle and high schools could be highly beneficial because most people, but in particular young people, do not know how to defend themselves when they are attacked,” the trio wrote in the letter. “As young female college students, we have thought about what we would do in a situation like that. We most likely would try to escape unharmed but have our doubts that we would succeed. However, if we were versed in self-defense practices, we would feel more secure and have greater confidence to protect ourselves.”

The teams won $500 to work on their issue, and related programming will happen in the fall. This is the fourth winning letter from Wagner College students in the past five years.

Wagner College wins ‘Ask Every Student’ grant

To support voter education and registration, Ask Every Student has awarded WagnerVotes — a campuswide, nonpartisan, student co-led voting initiative at Wagner College — a $3,000 grant. WagnerVotes will use the funding to provide stipends to voter engagement ambassadors and to incentivize students to engage in civic discourse and voter education programming on campus.

WagnerVotes student leaders Jasmine Abdelkarim’ 27, Miriam Owda ’27 and Jackie Guzman ’24 provided valuable and creative input on the application that Dr. Bernadette Ludwig, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Civic Engagement, wrote and submitted.

Bernadette Ludwig, associate professor of sociology and director of Civic Engagement, submitted the grant, while WagnerVotes student leaders Jasmine Abdelkarim, Miriam Owda and Jackie Guzman provided valuable input and feedback on the application.

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