Brianna Jalbert, Newman Civic Fellowship Award winner

Congratulations to Brianna Jalbert ’24, on earning the Newman Civic Fellowship award from Maine Campus Compact!

According to Maine Campus Compact, 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 based on their potential for public leadership and their work with communities.

Brianna is a double major in Psychology and Social Work, with a minor in Criminal Justice. She chose this route to understand the multiple systems at play when working with an individual who has survived trauma. She hopes to advance her career by working as a Victim’s Right’s Advocate for survivors of intimate partner violence.

She is a certified Green Dot Responder, receiving additional training in suicide prevention, harm reduction, and motivational interviewing, Secretary for Mindful Monks, and a tutor for the Social Work program. According to Karli Efron, social work assistant professor and field coordinator, “Brianna is currently a social work intern at Esther Residence, a transitional program for women who have recently been incarcerated and need additional supports before moving to an independent residence. Through this work, Brianna has worked directly with women who have fallen through the various cracks in our healthcare and criminal justice systems. She can see how unresolved childhood trauma can result in substance use disorder, mental illness, and unhealthy connections. Moving forward, Brianna has already connected with Safe Voices to complete her senior year internship working as an advocate for survivors of human trafficking and intimate partner violence.”

Karli goes on to say that Brianna wants to create a new program on campus – a training for students to become advocates who work hand-in-hand with Campus Security in the event a student experiences violence on campus. She is working with the Social Work faculty to help develop a semester long course, developed by the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, which will provide the mandated training for any student looking to do direct advocacy/volunteer work with any of the area domestic violence shelters in the area.

“These experiences have pushed me to want to provide more support and structure for students. With this I would like to start a program on campus for students to become advocates for other students. If there is an assault on campus this student could provide additional support and have additional training to be able to handle these situations. This provides extra support for students going through a difficult time, while also allowing students to be able to serve as an advocate and gain more experience.”  — Brianna Jalbert