Undergrad earns Newman Civic Fellows Award

St. Cloud State University’s Richard Gordon, St. Cloud, was recognized for his effective mechanisms for creating lasting change in the community, earning the Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellows Award for 2016.

“Richard earned this award due to his significant community organizing and involvement around issues of social justice, equity and his efforts to bring the NorthStar to St. Cloud,” said Beth Knutson-Kolodzne, associate director of Civic Engagement and Student Organizations.

Double-majoring in Community Development and Planning, and Environmental and Technological Studies, Gordon has worked to hold public meetings, educate constituents and garner feedback about expanding the NorthStar commuter train to St. Cloud to benefit underserved populations and others needing affordable transportation between St. Cloud and the Twin Cities metro area.

“This is my first big project, and I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to have this opportunity and to possibly contribute to this community in a

way that will change it forever,” Gordon said. The Newman Civic Fellows Award honors inspiring college student leaders who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country.

Newman Civic Fellows are recommended by college and university presidents to acknowledge motivation and ability in public leadership. “I am confident he will continue to make a difference in the lives of others and work toward creating more socially just and inclusive environments for all,” said late President Earl H. Potter III.

Gordon’s community involvement also includes co-founding the Collegiate Association for Community Involvement, an inter-collegiate
student organization engaging student communities with current issues concerning the community at large beyond the college campus, and being involved with the Central Minnesota Sustainability Project in the St. Cloud area.

“Change is the end result of conflict,” Gordon said. “In the words of Mumia Abu Jamal, ‘If you
are not angry then you are not paying attention.’ Pay attention, get mad and change it.”