Taylor Center announces recipients of George Floyd Fellowship
The St. Olaf College Taylor Center for Equity and Inclusion has announced the 2020–21 recipients of the George Floyd Fellowship for Social Change.
Isaac Coutier ’22, Tashonna Douglas ’21, Dezzy Newell ’22, and Joshua Wyatt ’21 are this year’s George Floyd Fellows. Through this fellowship, these students will work toward improving the collective experience of marginalized communities. They have each developed a yearlong project that focuses on advancing the areas and work of racial justice, social justice, and equity.
The George Floyd Fellowship program will provide leadership development opportunities, mentoring, and stipends supporting internships or research projects, costs associated with travel to conferences, and educational materials.
“We asked students to dream big. We wanted this fellowship to provide students the opportunity to be the architects of their dreams while advancing the well being of our Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. These fellows are the future. They are the change we need,” says Taylor Center Director María Pabón Gautier.
We asked students to dream big. We wanted this fellowship to provide students the opportunity to be the architects of their dreams while advancing the well being of our Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. These fellows are the future. They are the change we need.Taylor Center Director María Pabón Gautier
St. Olaf committed $100,000 this June to establish the George Floyd Fellowship for Social Change, and donors provided a matching endowment. That funding, combined with support from the Johnson Family Opportunity Fund, enabled the Taylor Center to name four fellows in this inaugural year. The purpose of the George Floyd Fellowship is to directly support the advancement and development of the Black/African-American community in the United States whose populations experience the social, political, and economic barriers that created the conditions leading to the police-involved killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Floyd’s murder set off national and international waves of protests, education, self-reflection, calls for action, and systemic change.
The George Floyd Fellowship is coordinated by the Taylor Center for Equity and Inclusion, which aims to foster an inclusive environment across the intersections of race and identity that students bring to St. Olaf.
Read more about the George Floyd Fellowship project developed by Coutier, a junior tight end on the St. Olaf football team, on St. Olaf Athletics.