Name: Students Unite: The Future Starts with Us (Community Engagement)
Start: 2026-04-22T15:15:00-0400
End: 2026-04-22T16:15:00-0400

Students Unite: The Future Starts with Us (Community Engagement)

Wednesday April 22, 2026 3:15pm - 4:15pm EDT

The Common House Space - South Room @ 206 W Market St, Charlottesville, VA 22902, USA

Students are shaping the future of campus life in real time—through leadership, scholarship, athletics, and efforts to build stronger communities across differences. This roundtable brings together student voices to reflect on the opportunities and challenges facing today’s college experience. Athletes, scholars, and campus leaders will discuss how students are navigating academic pressure, social change, and the evolving culture of university life. The conversation will also explore how students are building bridges across backgrounds and perspectives while helping define what community, leadership, and engagement look like on today’s campuses.

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Note: This Summit session is ticketed.
Please purchase your tickets on Humanitix. You will then receive an email from Sched with login information that allows you to make your personal schedule.

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A special thank you to our sponsors: The 14th Annual Tom Tom Festival is presented with the University of Virginia, Virginia Tourism, R.L. Beyer Custom Homes, Ludwig Kuttner, and The City of Charlottesville

Speakers

Vanessa Agyei

Incoming President and Current Program Coordinator, Rise Together

A third-year undergrad student at UVA, Vanessa is from Woodbridge, Virginia and proudly majors in Global Public Health and minors in Health and Well-being. She is a Posse Scholar and first-generation student, so is deeply passionate about using policy and education to advocate for... Read More →

Laura Espuna Santana

Moderator, Tom Tom

Laura Espuna Santana is a fourth-year student from Barcelona, Spain, pursuing a degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. With a strong interest in the intersection of business, technology, and data, she has complemented her engineering studies with data science... Read More →

Kendall Sano

Co-President, Delta Sigma Pi Business Fraternity

Kendall Sano is a student at the University of Virginia and the current Co-President of Delta Sigma Pi, where he helps lead a chapter of over 150 members. In this role, he has driven initiatives focused on professional development, alumni engagement, and organizational leadership... Read More →

Tanish Gupta

President, Virginia Case Club

Tanish Gupta is a fourth-year student from Hagerstown, Maryland and a Global Commerce Scholar in the McIntire School of Commerce. He is president of Virginia Case Club, a McIntire-affiliated club focused on training underclassmen to participate in case competitions and learn about... Read More →

Alwyn Dippenaar

President, Washington Literary Society & Debating Union

Alwyn Dippenaar is a 4th-year student at the University of Virginia studying Computer Science in the school of Engineering and Applied Science. In their capacity as President of the Washington Society, they are responsible for leading nearly 200 students in an organization that has... Read More →

Mary Ashleigh Berg

Chapter Founder, Kappa Omega Alpha Zeta Chapter

Mary Ashleigh Berg is a Foreign Affairs student at the University of Virginia with interests in public policy, national security, and emerging technologies. Her work focuses on how developments in areas like artificial intelligence and space systems intersect with governance and international... Read More →

Semony Shah

President, University Democrats at UVA

Semony Shah is a third-year Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia pursuing a B.S. in Commerce and a B.A. in Spanish. She currently serves as President of University Democrats at UVA, the largest college Democratic chapter in Virginia, where she leads efforts to expand civic... Read More →

Sponsors

C-VILLE Weekly

Common House

United Way of Greater Charlottesville

University of Virginia

The University is an iconic public institution of higher education, boasting nationally ranked schools and programs, diverse and distinguished faculty, a major academic medical center and proud history as a renowned research university. The community and culture of the University... Read More →

Wednesday April 22, 2026 3:15pm - 4:15pm EDT
The Common House Space - South Room

Civic Futures Summit

Tom Tom Festival 2026