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Home > Initiatives > Awards Programs > Newman Civic Fellows Award 2013 > The 2011 Newman Civic Fellows > Steven Rufe, Gwynedd-Mercy College, Pennsylvania

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Steven Rufe, Gwynedd-Mercy College, Pennsylvania

Each week, Steven Rufe travels from Philadelphia to New York to the United Nations, where he is working on a national curriculum for school-age children on the historical role of the United Nations in international issues such as water use. Steven has also presented at local and national conferences on the importance of global justice and is active in providing services to impoverished schools in both the United States and Africa. As an elementary education major, Steven likes working with younger kids. “That’s the age when they know how to tie their shoes. That’s the tipping point where I can change their lives for the better.”

I have always had a drive to serve others and work for the common good. But I never fully realized that I could go beyond volunteerism--that my opinion and hard work could influence policy decisions. My views changed when I sat in the office of one of my legislators in Washington, DC."

-Amanda Coffin, University of Maine at Farmington, Campus Compact student leader