News
Rutgers Class of 2008: Nine graduates going places
Nearly 11,000 students received their degrees from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, during a week of collegiate convocations beginning May 18 and at the universitywide commencement May 21. Among the graduates are exceptional individuals who have inspirational stories, including an undergraduate whose experiments on injured spinal cords represent a step on the way to a cure, a doctoral student in physics and astronomy who has overcome significant physical limitations, and a premed student who has organized trips to impoverished regions of the world to promote preventive medicine.
Arthur Congdon, Ph.D., Physics and Astronomy
Graduate School–New Brunswick
Congdon has muscular dystrophy, which has left him without the use of his arms and legs. He also is visually impaired. Despite these physical limitations, Congdon has been searching for evidence of the invisible – clumps of “dark matter” in space. His findings are helping scientists sort through the many theories on where this elusive matter is found, its origins and role in forming our Milky Way and other galaxies.
Risha Foulkes, J.D.
Rutgers School of Law–Newark
Foulkes, 31, a full-tuition Dean’s Merit scholarship student who graduated from Rutgers School of Law–Newark May 23, has been named a 2008 Skadden Fellow by the Skadden Fellowship Foundation. She is one of only 35 graduating law students across the country to receive a Skadden fellowship, which will pay their salaries for two years while they pursue public-interest law projects of their own design.
Stacy Hollingsworth, B.A., Psychology
Rutgers College
Many students land at college on a wave of exhilarating freedom – to find new friends, new interests and, in some cases, new identities. But Stacy Hollingsworth could only feel the walls closing in. Assailed by bouts of acute depression since she was 13, her despair became so crippling that she was briefly hospitalized that first year. During her sophomore year, she was forced to drop out.
Wajdi Kanj, B.S., Biomedical Engineering
School of Engineering
Wajdi Kanj spent spring break of his junior year with poor city dwellers in the Dominican Republic, treating foot wounds, planting gardens and piecing together puzzles with abused children. He was so inspired by what could be accomplished with such simple remedies that as soon as he got back to Rutgers he began organizing his own trips to promote the benefits of preventive medicine.
Jonathan Lomotey, B.S., Nursing
College of Nursing–Newark
Like all the new graduates of Rutgers’ College of Nursing, Jonathan Lomotey stands on the threshold of a professional career. But in truth, he has already traveled far in his life journey – much further than many of us can imagine. Lomotey grew up poor in Accra, the capital of Ghana in West Africa, living in a crowded family compound and attending church-run government schools.
Karina Martinez, B.A., Criminal Justice
Rutgers College
Early in her college career, Karina Martinez discovered her calling in social work. Her passion to help those in need would take her from a battered women’s shelter in New Brunswick, to work with illegal child domestic workers in Ghana, to Legal Services of New Jersey in Edison. But the self-styled “organization queen” says she floundered at first.
Todd Miller, M.B.A., Management
School of Business–Camden
Students know that the career value offered by a Rutgers MBA degree is worth the rigorous coursework and effort. It’s also worth the trip. And it was a long one at that for Todd Miller, who graduated this month having logged a cumulative 10,500 miles by airplane and car to complete his master of business administration degree.
Charles Edward Pax, Ed.M., Science Education
Graduate School of Education
Charles Edward Pax always knew in the back of his mind that he would be a teacher someday. What he experienced while serving in the U.S. military at Guantánamo Bay convinced Pax to begin teaching as soon as possible. His new goal: help the current generation of students become critical thinkers with the self-confidence to follow their own ethical path – and avoid blind acceptance of authority.
Nicole Peter, B.S., Public Health
Rutgers College, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
When an opportunity to conduct research at the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience arose her junior year, Nicole Peter did not hesitate, despite misgivings that many of her fellow Roman Catholics have about the center, known for its work on stem cells. Peter, a public health major at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, says she could not feel more passionate about her work.