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UMass Amherst has selected 10 members of the Class of 2020 as 21st Century Leaders for their exemplary achievement, initiative and leadership. Leaders include Nathalie Amazan, Commonwealth Honors College, double major in political science and legal studies; Racquel Bitar, Commonwealth Honors College, minor in anthropology; and Timothy Scalona, Commonwealth Honors College, double major in political science and a BDIC in policy, journalism and storytelling. (SBS News, 05/05/2020) [1]
The Class of 2020 as 21st Century Leaders from the Department of Political Science are:
Nathalie Amazan of western Long Island, New York, is a Commonwealth Honors College student with a double major in political science and legal studies with a minor in Afro-American studies. Recognized as a student leader, Amazan served as a member of the Student Government Association, rising to the position of vice president. She also founded the UMass Restorative Justice Initiative through her fellowship with Young People For and a partnership with the UMass Center for Education Policy and Advocacy to bring a restorative justice program to campus. She co-founded the UMass Prison Abolition Collective in 2016 and served on the W.E.B. Du Bois Afro-American Studies Undergraduate Council. She has worked as an intern for the UMass Student Legal Services Office and the ACLU. Her plans are to take the LSAT this summer and start law school in 2022 after doing legal advocacy work in New York and continuing to write and perform poetry.
Timothy Scalona is a Commonwealth Honors College student with a double major in political science and a BDIC in policy, journalism and storytelling with a minor in Spanish from Wilmington. He has worked as a resident assistant and is the founder of the First-Generation Low-Income Student Partnership, which advocates for centralized campus support systems for first-generation, low-income students. Scalona has written about and been featured in the media as a previously homeless college student and did his senior thesis on the Massachusetts Emergency Assistance program and his family’s experiences in it. He also served on the Student Government Association and chaired its Social Justice and Empowerment Committee. He has worked as a caseworker intern at Amherst Community Connections, assisting homeless individuals with job and housing searches, and as a district intern for former State Rep. Solomon Goldstein-Rose of Amherst. Scalona is a member of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity and helped lead efforts to support the UMass student food pantry and other projects for low-income students. His future plans include pursuing a master’s degree in public policy at UMass Amherst and eventually applying to law school.
News Type:
- Student News