Quinn Allred '26 has been named a John Robert Lewis Scholar by the Faith and Politics Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit that carries on the legacy of the late civil rights leader and longtime member of Congress.
Allred, an advocate for young people interested in public service, is one of five students nationwide to be selected as a Lewis scholar for 2026-2027. He joins the sixth cohort of students chosen to be part of the Faith and Politics Institute's Scholars and Fellows program, which identifies emerging leaders of positive social and political change across the country.
The Institute, co-founded in 1991 by Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Amo Houghton, R-N.Y., takes its nonviolent principles and methods from the civil rights movement. The Scholars and Fellows program was initiated in 2021, a year after the death of Lewis, who participated in the 1965 march on Selma, Ala., and was also a director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Lewis's dedication to the enduring quest for equal rights made him a revered figure. But, to Allred, Lewis was never in pursuit of adulation. "I think he was trying to inspire every person to do that work, and to dedicate their lives to it, and to make it the essence of humanity, and to make it the essence of our connection to each other."
As part of the scholarship, Allred, who hails from North Carolina, will make a civil rights pilgrimage to Selma, as well as visiting such famous Washington sites as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Capitol building, and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.
He has also been awarded a Richard D. Lombard '53 Public Service Fellowship from the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact.
In the years before he arrived at Dartmouth as a first-year student, Allred was diagnosed and treated for cancer that later metastasized.
"I had an insane several months right before coming here, and then I got here, and it became a home really quick, so I feel very lucky," Allred says. "Chemo cured both the cancer and my need to live my life how anyone else would want me to live it."
Once on campus, Allred, who is a government major modified with politics, philosophy, and economics, explored as many Dartmouth organizations dedicated to public policy as he could. "I felt like I had lost time, and I wanted to make up for it," he says. With no expectations for what he would encounter at Dartmouth, he found his footing relatively quickly.
"I've met so many people that I never would have possibly met otherwise, and learned so much," he says.
Allred is a founder and executive director of Let Us Lead, a nonprofit student organization at Dartmouth initiated in 2024 to bridge the power imbalance between "youth and politics, and youth in government," Allred says.
Let Us Lead trains young people to hone their management, organizational, and public relations skills as they try to effect legislative and social change. Let Us Lead now operates on 19 campuses in 12 states, Allred says.
While at Dartmouth, Allred was able, through a DCSI stipend, to go home to Raleigh, N.C., to work for a program helping people find housing. He served as chair of New Hampshire College Democrats and is the campaign manager for Paige Beauchemin, a Democratic state representative from Nashua, N.H., who is challenging U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., in the Democratic primary.
And Allred has also been involved in protests on campus, including over the war in Gaza and deadly violence by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota earlier this year.
"Congressman Lewis lived a courageous and dignified life. Quinn's actions reveal a superabundance of both of these traits," says Pamela Voekel, associate professor of history and Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies. "Quinn gave our community a lesson in courage and dignity … at the same time, he proved himself to be a true intellectual whose enthusiasm for intellectual life pulled others in his wake."
Anna Mahoney, executive director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, says that Allred's "capacity to listen and connect with others will serve him well as he pursues the training the fellowship has to offer."
With his scholarship award, Allred will return to Raleigh to work on Let Us Lead.
"If you find someone who is that energetic about making a difference, and teaching other people to do so, too—those are just some of my favorite kinds of people," Allred says.
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For information about applying for scholarship programs, visit the Fellowships Office.