Congrats to the 2017-18 recipients of the Bailey Fellowship!

Congratulations to the 2017-18 recipients of the Bailey Graduate and Professional Fellowship for Community Service, Leadership, and Activism

As a Peer Mentor for First Followers, Bethany Britton counsels and advises individuals, facilitates groups, participates in focus groups, collects participatory research project data, and creates video media. Bethany’s passion is to continue to use her personal life experiences to educate and motivate communities, organizations, institutions, and victims through public speaking and programs. Bethany has given testimonies in community churches, on the Justice Reform Community Fines & Fee Panel, and at Treatment centers. Bethany is pursuing a Master’s of Social Work Degree with an emphasis on mental health and substance abuse and is working to establish W.I.N. at C-U (Women in Need at Champaign Urbana) to offer services to homeless women, particularly those who struggle with substance abuse issues.

As an undergraduate and graduate student, as well as a former employee of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Saturnino Rodriguez has utilized his knowledge, skills, and experience to aide in the development and implementation of many campus-wide initiatives created to serve first-generation, underrepresented students - current and future. Thus, allowing him to empower students to overcome structural and personal barriers impeding upon their success on campus and beyond. Nino established a collaboration with Don Moyer Boys Girls Club was to conduct a Youth Participatory Action Research project to expose participants to an alternative to the master narrative about them and their social groups and to empower the participants to use the newly acquired knowledge to strengthen their voices and influence to achieve change in their communities. Nino is pursuing a PhD in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership.

Learn more about the University YMCA's Fred S. Bailey Scholarship and Fellowship Award program at universityymca.org/bailey.