Reyna Berry ’27 earns a 2026-27 Newman Civic Fellowship

Reyna Berry ’27 has earned a 2026-27 Newman Civic Fellowship, a year-long program that supports student public problem-solvers through mentorship, leadership development, and virtual and in-person events.

“Over the last two years, Reyna has exemplified the Oberlin ethos that one Obie can change the world, modeling for current and future students ethical community engagement, leadership, and advocacy for communities in need,” says Oberlin College President Carmen Twillie Ambar.

Berry, a theater major pursuing an integrative concentration in arts administration and leadership, became involved in the Oberlin Grafton Theatre Collective (OGTC) in her second year at Oberlin. She has served as student manager since that spring. In that role, she collaborates with artists at Grafton Correctional Institution to co-create and stage original theater productions centered on justice, identity, and community. 

“When approaching the prison industrial complex as a social issue, I find it important to address current harms and build structures for an abolitionist future,” Berry says. “In practice, this looks like cultivating community-based organizations that provide support to incarcerated individuals — and, simultaneously, refusing to let concerns for the sustainability of those programs limit their radical potential.”

With OGTC, Berry builds rehearsal schedules, develops mission and vision documents, applies for grants, facilitates long-term strategy meetings, workshops new plays, assists with stage management, and communicates regularly with facility staff. 

“I work to address mass incarceration by paying incarcerated artists and by connecting these individuals with job opportunities, projects, and professionals in the field outside of prison, demonstrating the obsolescence of the practice of incarceration,” Berry adds.

Beyond OGTC, Berry participates in the Writers in Residence program, working with incarcerated youth at the Lorain County Juvenile Detention Home on creative writing projects centered on harm reduction. She also co-founded Oberlin’s student political theatre company, Eyes Up, and in spring 2026 produced a new works festival highlighting political performance art from 25 student creators. 

As a research assistant, Berry has contributed to the curriculum for Assistant Professor of Theater Kari Barclay’s Theatre and Social Change course and to a library of queer and trans plays commissioned by former Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Katy Early ’16. She also presented an interactive workshop, “Theatre as Education, Theatre as Recreation, Theatre for Change with the Oberlin Grafton Theatre Collective” at the 2026 National Conference for Higher Education in Prisons.

Berry has acted in more than nine productions at Oberlin and recently earned an Oberlin College Theater associate producer internship, where she will support season selection, community outreach, budgeting, and marketing. She is also simultaneously pursuing a New Works capstone project exploring ways to bridge the divide between college students and local artists.

“I am always interested in how what we see onstage—or in the street—allows us to reimagine the present and future,” Berry says.

About the Newman Civic Fellowship
The Newman Civic Fellowship is awarded to students at institutions that are members of the nonprofit organization Campus Compact, the largest and oldest higher education association dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement.