![\"Ella](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Coro-Fellow-News-1200x800.jpg\")
FSU master’s student Ella Garcia has been named a Coro Fellow. (Brittany Mobley\/Undergraduate Studies)\t\t<\/p>\n\t\tFSU master’s student Ella Garcia has been named a Coro Fellow. (Brittany Mobley\/Undergraduate Studies)\t\t<\/p>\n
A Florida State University master\u2019s student and Presidential Scholar was accepted into a highly competitive national fellowship program for emerging civic leaders.<\/p>\n
Ella Garcia, who is working toward her master\u2019s degree in public administration<\/a>, was accepted into the Coro Fellows Program<\/a> housed at University of Missouri-St. Louis.<\/p>\n The Coro Fellows Program was founded in 1947 in San Francisco to train young World War II veterans in civic leadership skills. It now operates four centers in St. Louis, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, where it serves to advance civic engagement and accelerate the careers of those in public affairs.<\/p>\n As a Coro Fellow, Garcia will live in St. Louis and participate in a full-time, graduate-level leadership training program that includes seminars, interviews with local leaders, opportunities to learn about regionally specific topics, and placement in organizations across nonprofit, business and government sectors.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited because it\u2019s going to be very fulfilling to focus on the aspect of public administration that\u2019s about giving back, not just pursuing my own professional goals, but learning how I can better the communities around me,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to study administration and government in a theoretical way, but it\u2019s another to apply what I\u2019ve learned hands-on. It\u2019s what I feel like I\u2019m called to do.\u201d<\/p>\n From Mount Dora, Florida, Garcia is a member of FSU\u2019s Presidential Scholars Program<\/a>. She earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and will graduate with her master\u2019s degree this summer with support from FSU\u2019s More in Four<\/a> program, which helps high achieving students complete a bachelor\u2019s degree in three years and continue immediately into a master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n Professors and mentors say Garcia\u2019s involvement at FSU has prepared her well for the Coro Fellows Program. That includes her participation in FSU\u2019s Applied Politics & Policy Learning Experience (APPLE)<\/a> program, in the Department of Political Science<\/a>, where she was able to intern for a state representative and a member of U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cElla has used her time at FSU to gain extensive hands-on government experience and advanced analytical skills, with the aim of driving informed, community-oriented public service,\u201d said FSU professor Amanda Driscoll, cofounder of APPLE and one of Garcia\u2019s mentors. \u201cThe Coro Fellowship will provide her with additional public service experience and practical leadership training to deepen her impact and professional growth. I am confident that she will translate her established civic commitments into effective, real-world solutions, and we can\u2019t wait to see what she will accomplish next.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcia\u2019s interest in policy work extended beyond U.S. government last summer, when she traveled with a group of FSU Honors Program students to the Oxford Consortium of Human Rights<\/a> workshop at the University of Oxford in England.<\/p>\n \u201cElla is among the finest students I\u2019ve worked with at Florida State,\u201d said Ross Moret, who led the trip to Oxford and serves as an associate teaching professor in the FSU Honors Program. \u201cShe is dedicated, responsible, insightful and caring. She will make an outstanding Coro Fellow.\u201d<\/p>\n As a Presidential Scholar, Garcia said she enjoyed mentorship and a peer community that helped motivate her to reach her goals.<\/p>\n \u201cFSU and the Presidential Scholars Program specifically have been instrumental for me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really shaped who I am, as a leader and as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n To learn more about student support for pursuing national fellowships, visit the Office of National Fellowships<\/a> and the Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n