Tom Byron ’23 has won a Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs, which will allow him to work at several different organizations over nine months, gaining invaluable experience and professional development skills.

“Tom might be one of the most motivated students I’ve worked with,” says Gretchen Wardell, student success specialist who worked with Byron throughout his time at CC. “Tom’s passion for politics is unmatched, and Coro will provide him with practical experience and knowledge about communities, politics, and organizing. While the mission of the Coro Fellowship is to train the new generation of leaders, Tom is already a leader, and Coro will be a great jumpstart to a promising future!”

“I think CC was some of the best preparation I could have for Coro,” says Byron, a political science major. “The program works by cycling us through different organizations every six weeks for nine months, so it's kind of like the Block Plan for jobs. We might work for a government agency, then a nonprofit, then a corporation, then a political campaign, then a labor union, all to teach us about how power works in American cities.”

The Coro Fellows Program aims to equip upcoming leaders with knowledge, skills, and networks to create positive change. Fellows gain a wide range of experiences in different types of work as a result of rotating through organizations.

“As someone with a lot of concentrated experience in a single field, I'm excited for this program as an opportunity to go beyond what I know,” says Byron. “Young people are often encouraged to specialize immediately upon graduating, and this exposure to different types of work is a rare chance to actually try out different careers before committing.”

While fellows work at different organizations during the nine months, fellows are assigned to one of five cities where they will remain for the duration of the fellowship. Byron was placed in St. Louis, which he specifically requested because he doesn’t have experience in that part of the country, and he thinks that region often gets overlooked.

At CC, Byron co-chairs the Democratic Dialogue Project, a club focused on reducing the military-civilian divide by facilitating connections between CC students and United States Air Force Academy cadets.