SEMO student named Giffords Courage Fellow

A Southeast Missouri State University graduate student was named a 2023 Giffords Courage Fellow and traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in gun violence prevention advocacy.

Camille Shoals, 22, is pursuing a master's in public administration at SEMO and was one of 13 students from schools across the country to be named a Courage Fellow this summer.

The fellowship is named for and led by former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who represented Arizona from 2006 through 2011. Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman who killed six people and injured 12 others Jan. 8, 2011, in Tucson, Arizona.

According to the organization's website, www.giffords.org, Giffords, spurred by her experience as well as by the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2013, co-founded her namesake organization that has become an advocate for national gun safety.

The website stated Giffords launched the Courage Fellowship program in 2018 in order to empower young advocates, help them develop leadership skills and give them opportunities to fight for lifesaving gun safety laws.

Shoals said she was looking for internship opportunities when she heard about the mass shooting Oct. 24 at Central Visual Arts Performing High School in St. Louis, in which three people were killed, including the perpetrator, and an additional seven were injured.

The shooting hit close to home for Shoals, who lived in St. Louis and was a former high school student at Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, next door to where the shooting took place.

"The schools are linked by a common hallway," Shoals said. "I have friends and family who go to that school, and that attack felt like an attack on me."

When Shoals found the fellowship, she said it was a "perfect outlet" for her academic work and personal passions. She said being able to channel frustration into something that can make a difference is important.

She said Giffords' story changed the conversation about gun violence, and meeting her and seeing her perseverance showed Shoals "anybody could make a difference."

As part of the program, fellowship members develop and implement a gun violence prevention project in their local community. Shoals coordinated a panel discussion in partnership with SEMO's Tau Omicron chapter of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority with representatives of local gun violence prevention organizations, such as Southeast Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action.

Shoals said discussion topics included gun violence rates nationally and in the Cape Girardeau area, as well as why some communities -- such as college campuses -- are prone to being affected by gun violence.

Shoals stressed her focus is not on "taking anyone's guns away."

"That policy is not feasible, and it's not going to happen," Shoals said. "So, instead, let's talk about having gun locks and making sure that all of our people here who own guns, store them safely and act responsibly with them."

Shoals said that after finishing her degree at SEMO she plans to join AmeriCorps, followed by a degree in public interest law, focusing on immigration policy.

She said participating in the Giffords Courage Fellowship presented her with the reality that passion runs up against resistance, which requires patience.

"You can't change the world in a day," Shoals said. "But I know that there's going to be a generation to end gun violence. It might not be mine. It might not be my little brother's, but someone is going to handle it because it is out of control and there is no excuse."