2023 Beratan Fellow: Marquise Merck

Marquise (left) with YCV Triad staffers Doreen Kaphalanya (center) and Dominique Bradley (right).

We’re excited to announce that Marquise Merck is the recipient of our 2023 Beratan Fellowship! Marquise is a graduate student at UNC Greensboro who joined YCV in summer 2022. 

Now in its third year, the award honors the multiple contributions of the late Kathi Beratan, a passionate and dedicated YCV volunteer. The award provides a paid summer fellowship to a YCV Fellow who has shown outstanding commitment to and demonstration of YCV’s core values. It is funded by her husband, David Beratan, and other YCV donors who recall Kathi’s dedication to leadership development and community empowerment. 

 “Kathi joined as a volunteer in 2014, when YCV was just beginning, and made huge contributions to our organization by giving her time, energy, and talents.” Executive Director Kate Fellman said. “Kathi did the hard work, and pushed herself to meet the needs that were in front of us. We will always be profoundly grateful for her gifts to this organization.”

Marquise carries on Kathi’s legacy, embodying our values through service to his community. “Marquise maintained a posture of learning and curiosity throughout. His interpersonal skills enabled him to interact with student voters and community members and register them to vote,” YCV Lead Organizer Doreen Kaphalanya said. “He consistently remained nonpartisan, friendly, and treated every voter he interacted with dignity and respect. He is a well rounded experienced fellow who embodies equity, inclusion, respect, and nonpartisanship.”

Marquise plans to go into business law so that he can give back to the black community, teaching lessons of financial literacy and civic engagement. He got involved with YCV because he noticed that his fellow students didn’t care about the political climate and felt that they would be more receptive if they received information from fellow students. 

He has shown leadership and initiative within the Civic Fellows program, mentoring other students and helping them be more successful. “Marquise decided to take on the mentor role to help one of the fellows, Jayln, grow in confidence and do events on campus. I witnessed Jayln come out of her shell whether she was with Marquise or me, on campus or in community, Marquise was a great influence on her,” Doreen said. 

After working with the Civic Fellows program, Marquise says it has pushed him to be more vocal about what he believes in, while also making him more open minded and accepting of people. He says working with YCV has given him a sense of purpose and urgency to get involved in his community, saying “It’s okay to be nervous but you gotta do it!” 

We look forward to working with Marquise as our 2023 Beratan Fellow in the months to come!