Students
Class of 2009: Meet 11 graduates ready to embrace the future
More than 11,000 students received degrees from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, during universitywide commencement and separate convocation ceremonies in May. This year’s class faces a struggling economy and a challenging job market, but many graduates said they are ready for the challenge. Among the graduates are exceptional people who have made their marks at the university and have extraordinary potential going forward. They include a math and computer science student who battled cancer while getting his degree, a former Newark police officer who left the force to pursue a degree in social work, and a young woman who overcame dyslexia to pursue a master’s degree in education.
Dymir Arthur, bachelor's degree, history and political science
Rutgers College
It's hard to attach a label to Dymir Arthur: While at Rutgers, the Camden native has been a student government leader, social activist, mentor, lobbyist, and writer. Now he plans to work as a teacher with Teach for America, which benefits children in low-income communities. Eventually Arthur plans to enter law school and run for public office.
Laura Boss, master's degree, elementary and early childhood education
Graduate School of Education
Struggling with dyslexia, Laura Boss was frequently frustrated with school as a child. As she got older, Boss worked with a few patient teachers who helped her see her potential. Now she plans to become a teacher to support and motivate her own students.
Lamar Carter, bachelor's degree, communication
Rutgers College/School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
After losing his mother to AIDS when he was 2, Lamar Carter has come a long way. In 2004, he entered Rutgers with the support of the Educational Opportunity Fund, a program for educationally and economically disadvantaged students. He says his challenges have made him a stronger person.
Carissa Conroy, bachelor's degree, exercise science and sports studies
Livingston College
Brittanny Loisel, bachelor's degree, finance
Douglass College
Dealing with injuries is part of being an athlete, but Carissa Conroy and
Brittanny Loisel certainly had more than their fair share on the softball
team.
Amytza Maskati, bachelor's degree, journalism and media studies and spanish
Douglass College/School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
After landing her dream internship at NBC Studios in New York City, Amytza Maskati had a decision to make: pursue the tough road of broadcast journalism or go down another path. Maskati decided to look at other options but hasn't ruled out returning to journalism at some point.
Jeri McQueen, bachelor's degree, social work
University College–Newark
As a police officer in Newark,
Jeri McQueen got a firsthand look at the struggles people face in urban
communities. She left the force to pursue a degree in social work in
hopes of bringing a little sunshine into people's lives. The single mother also hopes her hard work will be an example to her 16-year-old daughter.
Javier Rosa, bachelor's degree, computer science and math
University College–New Brunswick
Javier Rosa, 25, refused to stop working when he learned that he had testicular cancer during his junior year. With strong support from faculty, Rosa missed few classes and was accepted to a prestigious Ph.D. program at the University of California, Berkley.
Alicia Schatteman, doctorateRutgers–Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration
August Schneeberg, bachelor's degree, labor studies and employment relations
School of Management
and Labor Relations
As a child, August Schneeberg heard from his father about labor issues and the importance of unions for working people. He brought those values to Rutgers, where he engaged in pro-union activism while working toward his degree. He sees union activism as a growth industry.
Jennifer Wilson, bachelor's degree, psychology
Camden College of Arts and Sciences
As a U.S. Air Force reservist with a husband on active duty, Jennifer Wilson knows fitness is important. To better understand motivations for exercise, she surveyed 130 active duty air force members and found that individuals were more likely to exercise frequently when they were motivated by their health, appearance, or mood – not military obligations.
Social activist aims to fight injustice as a civil rights
lawyer, but first a stint with Teach For America
Graduate was motivated at young age to become an activist
By Mary Jo Patterson
During college Dymir Arthur juggled more roles than most people do over their entire lives. He was a student government leader, social activist, mentor, lobbyist, public speaker, writer, and poet.
He was also a full-time student who earned a bachelor’s
degree in history and political science, with a minor in Africana studies.
Because of his extraordinary contribution to undergraduate life, he was
inducted into Cap and Skull – the senior honor society
– at the end of his junior year.
Arthur, 22, plans to attend law school. He attended the Institute for Pre-Legal Studies at Seton
Hall University School of Law last summer and dreams of fighting social
injustice as a civil rights lawyer. He also aims to write at least two books,
travel across the country to learn about the problems of young people in urban
areas, and run for public office.
But first he’ll spend two years with Teach For America,
working as a special education teacher in the Philadelphia public schools, while earning a
master’s degree in education. He spent the past year working as campus
recruiter for the organization.
“If I’m going to do something other than what I want my
primary career to be, the best time to do so would be now,” he said. “My
mentors in the law say taking time off before law school is not a bad idea.”
The teaching gig may not be much of a detour. Teach For America,
dedicated to equality in education, benefits children in low-income
communities. As president of the Educational Opportunity
Program Student Council, Arthur advocated on behalf of struggling students.
He himself enrolled at Rutgers because it
offered him a better financial aid package than other colleges.
Arthur grew up in South Jersey,
the younger of two children. His father was an African American and his mother
a native of Bermuda. From his father, a
business owner, Arthur inherited a love of community and respect for
individuals of all backgrounds. Frederick Arthur, who died in 2006, also
enthralled his son with stories about great men determined to change their
world, including Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Martin Luther King Jr.
“I never forgot those lessons. I carried them inside me,”
Dymir Arthur said.
As a boy, he began writing poems at age 10. He became a social activist as an eighth grader at the Charles W. Lewis Middle School, a predominantly white school in Blackwood. It was February 2000, the traditional time of year for Black History Month.
“We didn’t have any celebrations. I felt we had to change
that,” Arthur said. “My friends and I got together to start a new tradition,
where the school would celebrate black history through history lessons and
poetry. We were able to put together a great event, which is still running
today. It was the first time I had a chance to work on a problem in my
community.”
In high school he continued looking for ways to lead, while
pursuing his interests. He didn’t mind standing out.
“I was the only black guy on my cross country team, with 23
guys. I was also the only black male out of 20 people in a program that teaches
teenagers about the importance of safer sex,” he said. “I hung out with
everyone. I didn’t care who you were, or what you were interested in, as long
as you were a good person.”
After coming to Rutgers, Arthur became a diversity intern at Career
Services and an education policy intern for the New Jersey
Commission on Higher Education. He mentored high school students from urban
areas, taught leadership courses, and served on a cabinet advising faculty and
administration. Each spring, for three years, he traveled to Washington to lobby Congress for increased
student aid.
In the classroom, meanwhile, Arthur discovered a taste for history.
“History shows us that a desire for power has encouraged
many leaders and scholars alike to use the power of language to convince others
of falsehoods which have sparked wars, racism, chattel
slavery, sexism, xenophobia, religious conflicts, homophobia, and the
like,” he wrote in a recent post on his blog.
Social injustices remain rife in contemporary American life,
Arthur said.
“Some people would argue that the election of an African-African president is evidence racism doesn’t exist, but it does. We’re not in a post-racial society. I’ve experienced racism myself,” he said. “Often, when I speak to very powerful people, inside or outside the university, there seems to be shock that I ‘speak so well’ or am ‘so articulate.’ People don’t expect that from an African American who grew up in Camden.”
A student’s triumph over dyslexia
Master's graduate knew her destiny was to become a transformative teacher
By Carla Cantor
A decade ago, Laura Boss wouldn’t have dared to dream for a career as a teacher. For her entire academic life she struggled with dyslexia, a learning disability that made it difficult to read fluently and express herself through writing.
During high school, Boss often felt discouraged and frustrated by her poor academic performance. But despite her struggles, deep down, she says, “I knew I was as smart as the top students in my class.”
Boss was wise to listen to her inner muse. This month the 28-year-old received her master’s degree from Rutgers’ Graduate School of Education, completing the program with a GPA of 3.9.
Boss is proud of her accomplishments and grateful to a few patient teachers along the way who recognized her intellectual capabilities and took the time to understand how she learned best.
Her third grade teacher, Mrs. Sury, whom she still sees on occasion, put in extra time, coming to Boss’s home in Somerset after school to work with her. She introduced Boss to visual and auditory aides, such as videotapes and Books on Tape®, conveyed an important message: that although Boss learned differently than some of the other students, she was just as capable of fulfilling her intellectual potential.
“She took the time to get to know me and to know what made me tick,” Boss says. “She made me aware that I’d have to try really hard, but I could do it.”
Academic success did not come overnight, however. Boss attended Sienna College, where she struggled but made strides. “I slowly developed as a writer and figured out how to read through large amounts of literature,” she says.
After graduating, Boss was employed as an instructional aide, andat one job assisted with a group of children who had severe disabilities. Her work with a boy with autism in the process of being mainstreamed into high school had a huge influence on Boss’s attitudes about the environment in which children learn best.
“We worked closely with his teachers and parents to help him find his way in high school, academically and socially,” Boss says. “I saw what could be accomplished by taking a holistic approach, focusing on the whole child.”
Once she discovered the joy of deeply connecting with children and helping to make them whole, she knew her destiny was to become a transformative teacher.
“As a teacher I want to support children and motivate them to want to succeed,” says Boss, who is presently looking for a position in elementary education. “I hope to show my students that, like me, they can wish upon any star.”
Student overcomes odds with help from Educational Opportunity Fund
East Orange native says he's ready to face challenges ahead
By Jessica Starkman
Like the phoenix tattooed on his right leg, Lamar Carter has risen from the ashes multiple times on his road to graduation.
His record of beating the odds began as a young child, when he tested negative for the HIV virus. Carter’s mother died of AIDS when he was age 2, and his grandmother raised him in a single-parent home in East Orange. He says he always felt like an outsider.
“I had to struggle to find my place and a lot of times that place was ‘stage-left’ – away from everyone else,” he said.
As Carter sees it, life began for him in seventh grade when he entered the New Jersey SEEDS program, designed to give high-achieving, low-income youth the opportunity to attend private school. He graduated valedictorian of his middle school class at the Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts in East Orange, with an academic scholarship to Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange.
The school became his ticket out of East Orange. “[Seton Hall Prep] was a new chapter for me, and it was time for me to use all those life lessons … a chance for me to do more, and to shine brighter than anyone else had in my family,” he said. Carter believes it saved him from the pressure of drugs and gangs in his neighborhood. He found the environment intellectually challenging, and as part of the Griffin-Bridges program, he received extra attention, along with academic, social, and financial support. “I always had someone pulling for me,” he says.
He also credits the experience with preparing him for Rutgers by exposing him to different ideas and diverse cultures. In 2004, Carter entered Rutgers with the support of the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF), a program for educationally and economically disadvantaged students. “EOF gave me a tight support group, which a lot of people don’t have when they come to a university this large,” he says.
But Carter struggled at Rutgers, winding up on academic probation his first year.
He had never been away from home for an extended period, and college was a huge transition. “I was so used to living with my grandmother and dealing with things there,” he says. “If I had issues at Seton Hall, I could always come home,” Carter says.
Things turned around during the spring semester of that year, and Carter remained in good standing at the university; however, during the spring of his junior year, he struggled with a range of emotional issues, including depression, which again threatened his academic standing. Then, in June 2007 he got a letter saying that he was being released from the university and would not be eligible to return in the fall. Living with his grandmother for the summer, he hid the situation from her while he took two music classes on the Newark Campus and worked a summer job.
“I felt ashamed,” he said. “I feel ashamed when I can’t please people.”
Determined this time to succeed, Lamar earned A grades in both classes, which allowed him to re-enter Rutgers in the fall of 2007 as a communication major with a minor in sociology.
Despite these setbacks, Carter has managed to soar at Rutgers. He spent two years in the Paul Robeson Special Interest Section on the College Avenue Campus. He has taken photographs for the Daily Targum and worked as a practice player on the women’s basketball team. He also has the distinction of having one of his photographs published in women’s basketball Coach C. Vivian Stringer’s best-selling autobiography, Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph.
“I've followed the team since the beginning of my time at Rutgers,” Lamar says. “It's a professional highlight in my brief photography career – and a personal one as well.”
Receiving his diploma will be a major triumph for Carter. “Everything that I’ve done, all the awkward moments that I’ve had, didn’t stop me from achieving something that most people don’t achieve, especially in my family,” he said.
As for the future, Carter is interested in the fields of public relations, photography, and graphic design. He also loves coaching. But first, he will join Camp Starlight in Pennsylvania this summer as an assistant head of basketball.
“Whether it’s a higher power or fate,” he says. “I’ve always been able to get through situations, to be able to rise again when I’ve been annihilated.” He now feels ready to face life as an adult and believes the challenges in his life have made him a stronger person. “They taught me to be comfortable in myself – and comfortable in the person that I am.”
Softball players devoted to sport despite injuries
Carissa Conroy and Brittany Loisel endured 10 surgeries between them
By Hasim Phillips and Karen Ayres Smith
Carissa Conroy and Brittany Loisel endured 10 surgeries between them while on the Rutgers softball team, but both women stuck with their sport until the very end of their undergraduate careers.
Conroy was already a well-known pitcher from Richmond, Virginia, when she joined the team in 2006. She first underwent wrist surgery for swelling caused by overuse as a first-year student. After intense pain continued to shoot through her shoulder, she underwent an unusual shoulder surgery that involved removing a rib to alleviate her pain.
The longtime athlete was determined to return as a pitcher during her sophomore and junior years, but she was sidelined both seasons by further injuries and medical procedures. With all signs pointing to retirement, Conroy returned her senior year – this time she opted not to pitch but to help out as a pinch hitter.
“The coaches gave me the option to not come back and help out more as an assistant, but they made such an effort to say that I was the glue of the team and that the team needed me more than I realized, mentally and emotionally,” Conroy said. “I felt obligated, and it was my job as a teammate to be there for them.”
In the meantime, Conroy made use of her time off the field, becoming a “team mom and mental motivator” for her teammates.
“This experience really taught me character,” Conroy said. “I’m totally fine with people not remembering me for my softball talent, because softball will not do anything for me down the road; it’s more about the character you create in this environment that will help you succeed in life.”
Conroy’s teammate, Loisel, was named Rookie
of the Year after an outstanding first-year season, before she took a pitch
square in the face during a scrimmage in the fall of 2006, breaking her nose in
four 
places.
After undergoing surgery, she returned to the team just four weeks later. But she broke her nose a second time while sliding into second base and eventually underwent five procedures to help correct functional and aesthetic problems. After suffering a third broken nose during her junior year, Loisel stopped playing on her doctor’s advice. But she stayed on as a student-assistant coach.
“You get a very different perspective,” Loisel said. “I see my friends, these girls that I’ve been with for the last four years and have really become like family to me; I see them playing, and I feel a completely different sense of pride when I see them succeed as a team and individually. It’s a very different feeling than when you’re on the field.”
Loisel also served on the Rutgers Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), a group that addresses issues that affect student-athletes. She eventually represented the Big East Conference on the National SAAC and served on several NCAA committees.
Her participation rekindled a deep passion for athletics and helping other athletes. After graduation, Loisel plans to work for The Corporate Playbook, a company that helps student-athletes connect with the business world and make a transition after their athletic careers are over.
“It’s definitely been a roller coaster emotionally and physically,” Loisel said. “But I think in the end, it’s been a positive experience. There is that old saying that ‘what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.’ I think I’ve really been able to find out who I am as a person and not as a player, and I think I really needed that.”
Before trying to break into broadcast journalism graduate wants to explore the world
Role model is Rutgers alumna Natalie Morales, co-anchor of Today Show
By Stephanie Perez
On a busy commuter train back to New Brunswick from her internship at NBC Studios in New York City, Amytza Maskati found herself at a crossroads.
On one side was the potential of a job in broadcast journalism and, on the other, a world of possibilities outside of journalism. After a great deal of soul searching, the 21-year-old decided that she needed to spend time living her life before reporting on how other people live theirs.
“Getting an internship at 30 Rockefeller Plaza was both very surreal and a reality check,” Maskati said. “It taught me that this kind of life isn’t a piece of cake. It might be 10 years before I get a prominent position as an on-air reporter, if I am lucky. I wasn’t sure I was ready to make that kind of commitment.”
During her time at Rutgers Maskati has had a string of communications internships, from advertising and public relations to radio production and promotion. She even spent some time in sales at a cruise line. But her dream was to get an internship at a major network in her senior year. With the help of Steve Miller, a senior media coordinator at the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, she secured a spring internship at the talent recruitment and development department of NBC News.
Soon she moved over to other areas of the network’s news division, where she did everything from answering the phone for executives to helping coordinate travel for news talent. Maskati also had the chance to meet prominent on-air reporters, including Natalie Morales, co-anchor and national correspondent for NBC’s Today Show and a Rutgers alumna.
“Natalie was great,” Maskati said. “She made a real effort to get to know us on a personal level. She talked a lot about her time at Rutgers and gave me a lot of great advice.
In fact, it was a discussion with Morales that led Maskati on a different path. “She told me if there are other things I was interested in, this was my chance to explore,” Maskati said. It was Morales’s personal story that helped convince Maskati that she could always come back to journalism later.
Maskati isn’t exactly sure what she wants to tackle next. Growing up with parents of different religions and cultures – her mother is a Puerto Rican Catholic and her father is an Indian Muslim – she has always been fascinated with different cultures and languages. Maskati, who majored in both, journalism and Spanish interpretation and translation, would love to do something with her language skills, especially after having a wonderful experience abroad in Spain during her junior year.
Even with all of these options, and the recent acceptance of an offer from Teach For America, Maskati isn’t ready to rule out journalism. “Natalie is my inspiration,” explaining that Morales worked in finance right after college before going for the big lights. “Sometimes people need more time to get on the right road.”
This uncertainty might frighten some graduates, but not Maskati. She is willing to move forward and see what happens. “You can’t be afraid of change, especially if it is something that can open your eyes to new experiences. “
Her prediction? “My hope is that I’ll go somewhere else for a little while and discover something I am really passionate about that will fuel my reporting,” she said.
Newark police officer reinvents herself as social worker
Jeri McQueen left force to help people on a more personal level
By Karen Ayres Smith
As a Newark police officer, Jeri McQueen chased down suspects and tackled the drug problem on the streets. But in more than 13 years on the job, the Newark native also got a firsthand look at the very personal dramas – addictions, financial worries, and emotional problems – that unfold behind the scenes in the inner city.
“It was an eye opener for me,” McQueen said. “I really got to see a lot of the mainstream human condition that existed. A lot of times people don’t know who to turn to.”
As much as McQueen loved her job, she knew that pursuing her longtime dream of earning a college degree would allow her to help people on a more personal level. So the single mother, now 40, enrolled in Essex County College and then Rutgers–Newark to study social work.
Eight years later, the eldest of six children is the first in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree.
“All I want to do is make someone else’s situation that seems helpless just a bit more bearable,” McQueen said. “That’s where my passion comes through. As people go through situations, they don’t have to go through them alone.”
Growing up in Newark, McQueen says that she was a bit sheltered. Her father, himself a Newark police officer, and her mother, who worked with disabled people in New York City, set strict rules. While other children played outside on summer nights, McQueen, her two sisters and three brothers were inside and out of trouble.
“My father was always pushing books in my face,” she said.
Still, by the time she graduated from Mother Seton Regional High School in Clark, McQueen was more excited about getting a job than going to college. A year at South Carolina State University didn’t work out, so McQueen returned to Newark and decided to join her brother in taking the exam to become a police officer. He failed; She passed. (He later passed and has spent 18 years as a police officer in New York.)
With the money too good to pass up, McQueen joined the force and quickly saw the poverty and other problems plaguing Newark. Shy at first, she slowly got used to mediating disputes on the street and responding to calls at people’s homes. In fact, she grew to love it.
“I really enjoyed interacting with people,” McQueen said. “There was nothing like being in the streets and seeing it firsthand.”
But after having her daughter, L’Oreal, McQueen felt a pull back to the classroom. Social work seemed like the perfect match.
“Even though I was enjoying what I was doing, I always believed within me that I should earn some degrees while I am here on this earth,” she said.
McQueen enrolled in Essex County in 2001, taking classes part time while juggling motherhood and her job as a police officer. She took breaks after her father died and again when an engagement broke apart, but she became only more determined to get her degree. By 2003, she had quit the police department to go to school full time, becoming president of a student social work organization at Essex County.
After graduating with an associate’s degree in applied science, McQueen received a scholarship to attend Rutgers in 2007 and quickly became involved in the Rutgers–Newark University College Student Social Work Organization (UC-SWSO). She served as president this year.
“If I’m going to come to school, I want to experience everything college life has to offer me, even as a commuter student,” McQueen said. “I made it my business to get involved.”
She also made it her business to get good grades, racking up a 3.97 grade-point average. McQueen said that she hopes her dedication to her coursework sets a strong example for her daughter. L’Oreal, now 16, attends St. George’s School, a private boarding school in Rhode Island, on a full scholarship.
“It’s good for her to watch me maneuver my college years, as she does it on a high school level,” McQueen said. “One thing I’ve always told her is that whatever level I achieve with my degree, she has to match that.”
L’Oreal may be in for some hard work. McQueen has already received a scholarship to attend New York University in the fall to study for a master’s degree in social work. She hopes to pursue a doctorate afterward.
She hasn’t yet narrowed down what type of social work she wants to pursue, but McQueen knows one thing: It will definitely be in the inner city.
“I definitely try to be a catalyst to bring a little sunshine to somebody,” McQueen said. “I’m extremely excited, because for me this is just the beginning.”
Gifted math and computer science student kept his focus in
the face of cancer
Javier Rosa found caring community at Rutgers
By John Chadwick
Javier Rosa seemed to have it all – academic excellence, prestigious internships, and recognition for being one of a relatively small number of minority students studying computer science at a top research university.
Then one day in his junior year, the soft-spoken 25-year-old discovered he had cancer.
“It was an ‘uh-oh’ moment,” he said.
He refused to stop working. Over the next year, Rosa balanced doctor and hospital visits with his pursuit of a double degree in math and computer science.
In the end, he recovered, dropping just two courses, winning the prestigious Novielli Prize from the Department of Computer Science, and getting accepted into a noted Ph.D. program at the University of California, Berkeley.
But the 2009 Rutgers graduate also learned some life lessons not typically found in textbooks. The help and outpouring of concern he received from professors and classmates on the New Brunswick Campus made him realize that he was part of a caring community.
“I started to feel this great sense of belonging,” Rosa said. “And that’s something I have always been looking for.”
Rosa grew up in Perth Amboy. His parents, who were originally from Puerto Rico, didn’t attend college but made sure their children would.
“Growing up, it was always ‘make sure you get an education,’ ” said Rosa, who is tall, has black hair down to his shoulders, and a habit of interspersing his speech with gentle laughter.
A self-described free spirit, he has eclectic interests, everything from the new Star Trek movie to the work of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda to the edgy, alternative rock of Nine Inch Nails.
When he was younger, he thought about becoming a priest.
“It seemed like a good life, devoting your life completely to something special and to other people,” he said.
He entered Rutgers intending to study philosophy but switched to computer science, discovering a higher meaning in the advanced study of mathematical and computing concepts.
“You think it’s all programming, but there are so many theoretical implications,” he said. “It’s like I am learning more about the universe.”
His work caught the attention of professors.
When he took an advanced calculus course, one of the hardest of the required math classes, Professor Amy Cohen-Corwin noticed that Rosa’s interest in the material seemed completely natural and not motivated by career interests.
“He would come up and ask me questions that weren’t even part of the course,” she said.
She was just as impressed by his conduct.
“He neither blustered nor whined,” she said. “He was this quietly serious young man who got the job done.”
It was the fall of 2007 when Rosa went to a doctor to discuss a growth he had noticed on his body. The doctor confirmed what Rosa suspected: testicular cancer.
He reacted with the methodical calm of a research scientist. “I treated it as an academic problem and started reading papers on the subject and trying to figure out treatment options,” he said. “I wanted to maximize the probability to stay alive and minimize the pain.”
Rosa was also determined to miss as few classes as possible. So after having the tumor removed at St. Peter’s University Hospital on a Wednesday, he stayed out of school Thursday and Friday before returning to class on Monday.
Cohen-Corwin said she was anguished about his condition but awed by his ability to bear it with grace.
“I was blown away,” she said.
But Rosa said the strain on his body eventually caught up with him. He felt devoid of energy over the spring and fall of 2008, and in the winter break, he simply stayed put in his dorm room.
“One thing I realized is that I need to keep better track of my stress,” he said.
Another realization, he said, was how much his teachers cared about him as a person as well as a student. His computer teacher recommended the doctor that he would eventually use. His algorithm teacher told him about family members who had experienced similar health problems. Cohen-Corwin advised him on academics and enlisted the help of Academic Advising and Student Services to help manage his course load and health issues.
As he prepares for his journey to the West Coast, Rosa said he will look back on Rutgers as a time of personal awakening as well as a time of excelling in academics.
“Looking back, I realize I had a family in academia,” he said. “What I learned was that the relationships I made here are not superficial – they’re permanent.”
Just call her Dr. Mom
Alicia Schatteman earned her doctorate while raising five children
By Fredda Sacharow
Three-and-a-half years ago, at the age of 35, Alicia Schatteman had one bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, three children (with another on the way), and one fervent desire: to leave the world of nonprofit administration for academia.
When the Bloomfield resident took possession of her hard-won doctoral degree this month from Rutgers–Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration, a total of five children and one beaming husband were on hand to cheer her on.
The newly minted Ph.D. did something after the ceremony she hadn’t been able to do in a long while: She took a deep breath and plopped down on the sofa for the blessed relief of watching House M.D. with no homework to finish or papers to grade.
Schatteman, who had served just shy of four years as executive director of the Montclair Historical Society, was seven months pregnant with her fourth child when she started classes toward her doctorate in September 2005. Weary of putting in long hours and weekends, she longed for the more independent routine that academic life promised.
“I loved the possibility of being more in control of my own time,” Schatteman said. “As a college professor, I could have a more flexible schedule that better fit me as a working mother.”
The ensuing semesters were a blur of coursework, comprehensive exams, teaching as a graduate assistant, diapering, lunch making, birthday party planning, researching, and thesis writing. Schatteman went into the project with her eyes open, grounded by years of parenthood already under her belt.
“With the first child, you’re clueless… By the time number four rolled around, I already had a system,” she said. “The house was totally baby-proofed, my husband and I had already given up going out to dinner and having a clean house. We didn’t have to go through any major shifts when I went back to school – we’d already done that.”
Schatteman was researching and writing her dissertation – an examination of mandated municipal performance reports in her native Ontario – when her last child was born; she defended the thesis just before he turned one year old.
“Basically, I treated school as my job: I showed up every day at 9 a.m.,” she said. “When the kids went to school and daycare, Mommy went to school.”
With a degree of discipline a boot-camp drill sergeant would envy, Schatteman and her husband, Matthew, got all five children into bed by 9 p.m. almost every night. She spent the next two hours organizing her notes and conducting online searches.
“The kids understood what I was working for and accepted it,” Schatteman said. “Actually, the younger ones didn’t know any other lifestyle. They knew when I went to soccer practices and birthday parties, I would bring books or papers to grade.”
Matthew Schatteman – who his wife describes as part friend, part cheerleader, and part financier – has a starring role in his wife’s success. “He’s committed as much to this project as I have [been]. We’re both big believers in education; we both really love learning and going to school,” Alicia Schatteman said.
During her time at Rutgers, Schatteman enjoyed informally mentoring other women who were juggling family and academic obligations. It’s a relatively small sisterhood, she said, and its members need to support each other.
“We have a tremendous amount of mom-guilt, but we have to let some of that go for the long-term benefits,” she said. “If you miss taking your 2-year-old to a friend’s birthday party, chances are she won’t remember it down the road. But she will appreciate it later when you’re able to pick her up after school, because you’ve been grading papers at home.”
The next challenge that looms is finding a job teaching, either at the graduate or undergraduate level. Schatteman has been interviewing both in the northeastern United States and in Ontario. Plan B, put in place because of a dismal economic climate, is to stay close to academia, either in a research or policy position, and maybe do some adjunct teaching on the side.
“I’ll keep teaching at Rutgers over the summer, but September – that’s the big question mark,” she said.
Father’s union activism pointed the way to labor studies
program
Graduate ready for career in organized labor
By John Chadwick
They were big, burly men with tattoos, motorcycles, and an intimidating presence.
But the loss of their blue-collar jobs left them shaken, with some even breaking down.
For August Schneeberg, a 2009 Rutgers graduate, the memory of those men is indelible. They worked alongside his father at a motor oil packaging plant in Edison, until the plant closed.
Schneeberg, a youngster at the time, was acquainted with their struggles because his father served as shop steward for the union.
“To see these big guys really shaken up, that was the turning point was for me,” the 22-year-old said. “That’s when I started realizing how important people’s jobs were.”
By the time Schneeberg entered Rutgers, he didn’t have to think long about choosing a major.
“I knew exactly what I wanted,” he said.
He enrolled in the School of Management
and Labor Relations, opting for a labor studies concentration that focuses in
part on the problems of working people and what workers have done to solve
those problems.
He also jumped into pro-union activism – on campus and off.
Schneeberg worked as a union organizer for the Communication Workers of America and received the Anthony Zuccarello Labor Studies Scholarship for his efforts. He also went undercover as a field research intern for Change to Win – a coalition of Labor Unions started in 2005 – taking a job at a retail business to investigate consumer and workforce problems.
This year Schneeberg and other Rutgers students joined with the national group United Students Against Sweatshops in a campaign against Russell Athletic, a company that produced apparel for a number of colleges and universities, including Rutgers.
The students accused the company of shuttering a factory in Honduras to thwart the union activities of its workers – a charge the company denied.
With campaigns against Russell taking place on campuses nationwide, Schneeberg and other students met with university officials
to express their concerns, and sponsored a campus event in which two of the
fired workers told their stories to students.
In the end, Rutgers decided
against renewing its contract with Russell, which expired in March. More than 50 colleges and universities have severed ties with Russell.
“I think we sent a message to garment companies that if they operate in sweatshop conditions, they will be at risk of losing university contracts, which can be pretty lucrative,” Schneeberg said.
Schneeberg’s commitment to working people goes back to his upbringing in a staunchly pro-union family. Besides his father’s work as shop steward for the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union; his grandmother was a riveter for the Boeing Company and a member of the machinists’ union.
“My family had dinner together every night, and my dad always would talk about labor issues,” he said. “It’s funny looking back now, I was so aware of the role and the purpose of my father’s union that I didn’t actually understand there were workers who didn’t have unions.”
Last week, Schneeberg capped his undergraduate career by delivering the student speech at the convocation for the School of Management and Labor Relations. He praised the school’s academic program, spoke of his father’s and grandmother’s union activism, and recognized the contributions of his classmates.
He also spoke out against workplace injustice.
“When we go to work . . . we abandon basic rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of association,” he said. “This just should not be.”
After graduation, Schneeberg wants to go to work for a union as a corporate researcher, analyzing the power structure of companies to determine the steps needed to unionize employees. Despite the decline in the percentage of American workers represented by unions, Schneeberg isn’t worried about his career.
Indeed, he believes union activism could be a growth industry.
As in the 1920s and 1930s, Schneeberg said, the United States is moving from a period of great economic growth, which mostly benefited the wealthy, to an era of economic distress.
“Working people’s wages have not gone up, and they are taking on more and more debt,” he said. “I think workers are eventually going to get fed up and want to organize.”
U.S. Air Force reservist studies physical fitness motivations
Jennifer Wilson found job wasn't always best motivator for air force members
By Cathy K. Donovan
The health of people in the military is critical to Jennifer Wilson. As a U.S. Air Force reservist with a husband on active duty, she knows firsthand that fitness matters on and off the battlefield.
Wilson, a psychology major who graduated from Rutgers–Camden on May 21, received two grants to study the best motivators for physical fitness in the air force. Putting one’s life on the line certainly steps up the workouts, but doing it all for the job isn’t always the best motivator.
“This is definitely a hot topic in the military, where fitness programs have been ramped up because of increased overseas contingencies,” says the mother of two from Browns Mills. “There is a need to make programs more efficient.”
Wilson surveyed 130 active duty air force members and found that individuals exercised more frequently when they were motivated by their health, appearance, or mood, but not their military obligations. Those who cited these kinds of motivators also were more likely to reap other psychological benefits from exercise, like satisfaction with their bodies.
“If you’re in the military, your whole career is about being fit. You can get in trouble, even discharged, if you’re not,” says Wilson, a member of the student group, Veterans for Education. “All of the participants had military motive, but if that motive was primary, it became more problematic.”
Charlotte Markey, an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers–Camden, known for her research on body image in various dynamics, worked with Wilson on this study. Markey said their findings will eventually be published.
“Jennifer is a promising young researcher. She is a diligent worker, and she is thoughtful about her area of study. Jen hopes – as do I – that her work will ultimately inform military efforts to improve the health benefits of physical activity among members of the military," Markey says.
Wilson's scholarship at Rutgers–Camden has earned her a host of academic honors, including the Dean's Undergraduate Research Prize, the Faculty Award, and the Athenaeum Honor Society Award.
After graduation, Wilson plans to move with her husband, Tech. Sgt. Efrem Wilson, and their children to Florida, where she intends to pursue a graduate degree. This summer Wilson will continue to work with Markey regarding aspects of the study looking at personality as a factor in determining the degree of fitness benefits.