Political science major selected for public affairs fellowship in California

The Office of Fellowships is thrilled to announce that James Crisafulli (WCAS ’20) has won the Coro Fellowship! Next year, James will be placed with the Los Angeles cohort of fellows and receive training in multiple sectors.

James hails from Southern California and is graduating in three years with a major in political science. He has been an avid researcher since he arrived on campus and is currently finishing his time as a research assistant through the Farrell Fellowship. James was a Kaplan Scholar during his first year, a Brady Scholar during his second and third years, and was selected as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honorary society this year.

James also enjoyed being a politics reporter for North by Northwestern and even started his own politics podcast for the publication. He has also been actively involved in the Global Engagement Summit and served as a group facilitator last year.

This past winter, James represented Northwestern abroad at the University of Oxford, where he studied law and discovered an interest in international human rights law. He will continue to pursue that interest through an additional part-time fellowship this summer, the Humanity in Action Fellowship, for which he will design a creative project to spread awareness about a particular human rights issue. He plans to attend law school after his fellowships and work at the intersection of human rights and climate change.

The Coro Fellowship provides fellows the opportunity to truly learn by experience. Over the course of nine months, each fellow participates in a series of full-time projects across a variety of sectors in public affairs, culminating in a final independent project of the fellow’s choosing. In addition to the Los Angeles cohort, the Coro Fellowship also has placements in San Francisco, New York, and Pittsburgh.

James is the first Wildcat to join the Los Angeles cohort of Coro Fellows since Diana Raiselis (SoC ’12) held the award in 2017–2018.

Contact Jason Kelly Roberts at jason-roberts@northwestern.edu to learn more about the Coro Fellowship.