Making a difference in Ithaca and beyond

Growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, Cornell University junior Sherell Farmer — named this month as Cornell’s Campus Compact 2021-22 Newman Civic Fellow — was well aware of the inequalities so sharply juxtaposed in New York City.

“It was everywhere,” said Farmer, a student in Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations whose commitment to working toward equality was first nurtured in her family’s home.

Every day, she was expected to read a page from a Black history book on a living room table.

“My dad would say, ‘OK, tell me what you learned today,’ and I would sit down and recite it back,” she said.

In school, Farmer saw her classmates — primarily students of color — kicked out of class for days, despite the fact that that would worsen problems, but heard from her father about wealthy students in

Manhattan traveling the world and receiving private tutoring.

“Something about that is uncool,” she remembers thinking.

“Hearing and witnessing the experiences of my neighbors, I came to Cornell committed to fighting these ills,” Farmer said in her statement for Campus Contact, a national coalition of colleges and universities committed to higher education’s public purpose. “Taking classes on various social issues, I have learned that no issue truly exists in a vacuum. This knowledge has grounded me in my belief that relationship building is the true work of social change.”

That inspired her to get involved in the Ithaca community, she said, including a summer internship with two public defense attorneys to help them provide effective counsel for marginalized community members. Farmer is also the undergraduate coordinator of a weekly free legal clinic at Ithaca’s Loaves & Fishes soup kitchen and a co-founder of Cornell Students 4 Black Lives, which raised more than $110,000 in support of national, state and local anti-racist social justice organizations.

“Sherell is a wonderful example of a student engaging with the community and making a difference,” said Alexander Colvin, dean of the ILR School. “Being named a Newman Civic Fellow is a great honor, and we are very proud of her accomplishments.”

The Newman Civic Fellowship, in its 11th year, honors students who engage with others to create long-term social change, take action to address issues of inequality and demonstrate a potential for civic engagement.

As a Campus Compact member institution, Cornell can nominate one student to be a Newman Civic Fellow each year. Units in the Engaged Cornell Hub organized the nomination process, and Farmer was nominated by Cornell President Martha Pollack.

In her nomination letter, Pollack said Farmer “knows that meaningful change requires more than academic study — it requires direct engagement with communities. Through Cornell’s High Road Fellowship, Farmer worked with the Center for Employment Opportunities in Buffalo, New York, where she analyzed barriers that keep formerly incarcerated individuals from completing job readiness programs and created workshop materials to better serve them.”

ILR was a great fit for Farmer to build a future dedicated to equity, she said, and High Road, based in ILR’s Buffalo Co-Lab, brought together the components of effective activism by synthesizing skills for mobilizing and energizing people to make changes in their communities.

“High Road sharpened my ability to advocate for others,” said Farmer, who has minors in inequality studies, law and society and history.
Campus Compact, the only national higher education association dedicated solely to campus-based civic engagement, named 212 community-committed students from 39 states, Washington, D.C., and Mexico to serve as fellows during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Fellows have learning opportunities throughout the year, including a national conference, and exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.

Mary Catt is the ILR School’s communications director. East Hill Notes are published the first and third Wednesdays of each month in Tompkins Weekly.