Austin Doehler, Gordon College
Austin is a junior at Gordon College who possesses the characteristics of a Newman Civic Fellow. He seeks to understand the root causes of social issues and research effective mechanisms for creating lasting change. His work as a student leader with our Gordon-in-Lynn programs has him researching asset-based community development at the micro-level by tutoring children in a public housing section and volunteering with a church in that same city that reaches out to the homeless and addicts. At the macro-level, he is active in Democratic politics and has volunteered and interned at the local level, as well as on Congressional and Gubernatorial campaigns. At the global level, he volunteered this past summer as an English teacher in both Hong Kong and Cambodia. Austin leads by example, hard work and collaboration with others.
-Michael Lindsay, President
A passion for service is something that seems to have always been ingrained within me. In college, I have had unique opportunities to express this passion in a multitude of ways, and I could not be more grateful. Over the past two years, I have been able to be a tutor for children ranging from grades K-5, as well as a volunteer at the Lynn YMCA, Operation Bootstrap (an ESL/GED center for immigrants and refugees), the youth group at Cambodian Baptist Church, and House of Hope (a church that serves people who are homeless, in recovery for substance abuse, or ex-convicts). These experiences have enriched me. I have been privileged enough to get to intimately know the vibrant communities that I have been working in and the stories within them; I have learned about the struggles inner-city children face in public schools, what it takes to start a new life in the United States, what it truly means to have nothing and still have hope, and how to live in a post-conflict community. The impacts that I have made may be small in the grand scheme of things, but the impact that these engagements have had on me are insurmountable.
-Austin Doehler
