RUTGERS–CAMDEN STUDENT PAUL BOYD CHOSEN FOR TRUMAN SCHOLARS PROGRAM
MESSAGE FROM THE CHANCELLOR
STRATEGIC PLAN OVERVIEW
SUCCESS IN CAMDEN
RESEARCH IN CAMDEN
DRIVING CHANGE FOR GOOD CAN AI IMPROVE PUBLIC SAFETY?
SAVED BUT ENSLAVED FAST, FURIOUS, AND CHEAP
EXPERTISE IN CAMDEN
SENIOR EXECUTIVE ALUMNUS
REACHING STUDENTS BY TEACHING THE BUSINESS OF NURSING
PLANTING SEEDS WITH POETRY
RUTGERS–CAMDEN AUTHOR JOINS
DOCTORAL CANDIDATE NAMED FINALIST FOR FULBRIGHT STUDENT AWARD
A DEGREE 44 YEARS IN THE MAKING FINE ARTS TRAILBLAZER
PROUDLY STEPPING INTO THE NURSING PROFESSION
FIRST-YEAR CHEMISTRY MAJOR SECURES NASA-SPONSORED INTERNSHIP
LEGACY IN CAMDEN
HISTORY ALUMNA KEEPING THE PAST ALIVE IN THE PRESENT
FINDING AN UNEXPECTED HOME
BUILDING BRIDGES AND TUNNELS TO POSITIVE CHANGE
WHAT I KNOW NOW
COMMUNITY IN CAMDEN
GROUND BROKEN ON TRANSFORMATIVE $60M PROJECT
1,000 POINTS AND COUNTING
THE SCIENCE OF COOKING
RUTGERS–CAMDEN ENGAGES IN GHANA AND NIGERIA
99-YEAR-OLD WWII VETERAN SHARES
WAR STORIES WITH RUTGERS–CAMDEN
NEWS IN CAMDEN
RUTGERS–CAMDEN RECOGNIZED FOR EXEMPLARY COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ATLANTIC
Chancellor
Editor
Dustin Petzold
Writers
Caroline Brobeil
Shanida
Christina
Debbie Meyers
Lee
Dustin Petzold
Eileen Reinhard
Kathryn Rosko
Creative
Douglas Shelton
Creative
Karaamat
Creative
Photography
A Message from the Chancellor
Welcome to the Summer 2024 edition of Rutgers University–Camden Magazine! I hope you are inspired by this collection of research highlights, student successes, stories of alumni excellence, and more great news that has emerged from our beloved Camden community so far this year.
This edition of the magazine is structured to reflect the five pillars of our 2023-2028 Strategic Plan. These stories demonstrate that our strategic pillars are not merely symbolic; our commitments to academic excellence, student success, holistic student experience, community engagement, and internationalism are put into practice each day by those who call Rutgers–Camden home.
Thank you for your interest in and support of Rutgers–Camden. Continued collaboration with our peer institutions and community partners helps to make stories like these possible.
Sincerely
, Antonio D. Tillis, Ph.D. Chancellor
2023–2028 Strategic Plan
A CENTURY AND BEYOND OF EXCELLENCE, COMMITMENT, AND ELEVATION
1. Innovation in Academic Excellence, Striving Toward Preeminence
• Expand undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs
• Design and implement non-traditional education opportunities/certifications
• Deliver curricular/programmatic innovation in undergraduate education
• Develop greater faculty support for student research
2. Transformative Student Success: Preparing the Next Generation of Compassionate Leaders
• Develop a strong foundation for success
• Empower students to achieve academic and professional goals
• Partner with local business enterprises, non-profits, and government agencies
• Expand career readiness
3. Holistic Student Experience: Serving the Needs of the 21st-Century Student
• Drive enrollment and recruitment
• Improve student retention and engagement
• Expand student services with a focus on student wellness
• Foster a sense of belonging
• Boost alumni engagement
4. Beloved Camden Community: Advancing the Common Good on Campus and Beyond
• Enhance faculty and staff recruitment and opportunities for internal growth
• Renew campus-built environment
• Support faculty research
• Develop infrastructure to support teaching and professional development for faculty and staff
5. Internationalization: Bridging Rutgers University in Camden and the World
• Improve international recruitment and admissions
• Elevate and expand international academic collaboration
• Strategically focus on select global regions and countries
• Promote international experiential learning opportunities
• Coordinate effort and investment
SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STRATEGIC PLAN.
FROM PRISON TO PUBLIC SERVICE :
RUTGERS–CAMDEN STUDENT PAUL BOYD CHOSEN FOR TRUMAN SCHOLARS PROGRAM
BY CAROLINE BROBEIL
M“When I got to prison, I looked in the mirror and had a moment with myself: Was I going to give up on life, or was I going to change myself for the better?”
ore than a decade later, Paul Boyd, a rising senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, has answered that question for himself and others. The philosophy major was named a 2024 Harry S. Truman Scholar, finding himself among 60 awardees chosen from 709 candidates nationwide. He is the first-ever Rutgers University–Camden student to receive the honor and one of a select few formally incarcerated students to join the scholarship program since its inception in 1975.
Although Boyd overcame incredible odds and navigated a highly competitive application process to become a Truman Scholar, it was far from the toughest challenge he has faced. That moment arrived when it was time for him to begin preparing for life after incarceration.
During his prison sentence, Boyd enrolled in the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons initiative, also known as NJ-STEP, a partnership of several higher education institutions in New Jersey, the State of New Jersey Department of Corrections, and the New Jersey State Parole Board that offers college-level courses to incarcerated individuals to assist in their transition to life upon release from prison.
"Participating in that program gave me a sense of what was possible with my life," Boyd said. “It gave me a different vision of my future."
Boyd enrolled at Rutgers–Camden in 2023 after earning an associate's degree. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy after graduating from his undergraduate program. The Truman Scholar program will help him continue his educational journey with funding for graduate studies, leadership training, career counseling, and special internship and fellowship opportunities within the federal government.
Paul Boyd
Created by Congress shortly after President Truman died, the program is considered a living memorial to the nation's thirty-third president. who did not attend college but believed strongly in public service and in programs that would allow others to choose a career in the public sector. While many of those who are selected fall into the traditional profile of a college student, a select few in the program's history—like Boyd—are students with a nontraditional background.
Not surprisingly, the Rutgers–Camden community could not be prouder of Boyd.
“Paul is a living example of intellectual curiosity, scholarly dedication, and perseverance,” said Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis on the announcement of Boyd’s scholarship. “He now has a well-deserved place in the Rutgers–Camden history books, achieving this distinction through his hard work and academic excellence. I cannot wait to see how Paul will make the most of this opportunity as he builds a career in public service.”
Marsha Lowery, vice chancellor for student academic success, echoed the Chancellor's praise.
“Applying for such a competitive and prestigious award is time-consuming and nerve-wracking, but Paul recognized the strength of his candidacy and completed the process,” Lowery said. “I wish Paul the best in his time as a Truman Scholar, and I encourage other Rutgers–Camden students to follow his example.”
Boyd has sought to make the most of his time on campus, engaging wholeheartedly in the university community and other opportunities to further his learning. In the summer of 2023, he participated in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, supported and funded by the National Science Foundation. His internship was designed to introduce formerly incarcerated students without a background in the STEM fields to various disciplines.
As part of that experience, he was selected to join the lab of Jerelle Joseph, an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University. There, he spent time mutating specific RNA-binding proteins to assess their impact on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
“Though challenging, I persevered through moments of doubt, driven by my unyielding curiosity and the support provided by staff and peers,” Boyd said. “This experience solidified my sense of belonging in academia and my ability to contribute meaningfully.”
Boyd, a native of Atlantic County and a proud father of three, is ultimately humbled by the honor of being named a Truman Scholar and hopes to eventually work for a program that supports incarcerated individuals interested in pursuing higher education and preparing for life after prison.
"There's a line of thought that helping others helps you, and I've found that is true,"
said
Boyd. "I want to work to remove the barriers that hinder people looking to change so they can access opportunities to better their lives and have a positive impact."
Paul Boyd alongside Rutgers–Camden Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis at Boyd's award reception.
Boyd is the first-ever student from Rutgers–Camden to be named a Truman Scholar and only the 16th student from Rutgers University since the scholarship program was created in 1975.
RESEARCH IN CAMDEN
Driving Change for Good
Strategic $2.5M Grant will improve STEM student retention and graduation rates
BY EILEEN REINHARD
To support lasting cultural progress on campus so underrepresented STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) undergraduate students can excel and graduate, the Driving Change Initiative at Rutgers–Camden has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Over five years, the grant will help create inclusive environments, promote student success, and address institutional obstacles that create barriers to inclusion.
Rutgers–Camden is designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Minority Serving Institution, as more than 50 percent of its students are racial minorities. While the university is committed to a way of life where all students feel welcome, valued, and respected, historically excluded STEM students have lagged behind Asian and white students in retention and graduation rates.
Seeking to address this disparity through the Driving Change Initiative, a team of faculty, staff, and students has developed long-term strategies to address the underlying conditions that have inhibited student success. The HHMI grant will help implement institution-centered programming. These programs will significantly increase the inclusivity of the university’s STEM learning environment while directly supporting success for historically excluded students.
“It has been critical for us to look at the root causes of the barriers that hold back underrepresented groups in STEM fields and address where our institutional issues of race and identity can be changed, for the better, in sustainable ways,” said Professor of Biology Kwangwon Lee.
Lee is a leader of the university’s Driving Change Initiative and served as lead applicant for the grant. He also heads the MARC U*STAR program that provides training, support, and mentorship for undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds interested in pursuing doctoral degrees in biomedical science.
“Creating systematic change is where these HHMI funds can be utilized to develop solutions to institutional barriers that pose challenges for underrepresented STEM students,” Lee said.
Lee noted that barriers to student success in STEM include: a lack of STEMspecific DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) efforts, which reduce the sense of belonging on campus; an assumption by faculty that students without prior STEM exposure are underprepared; invisible barriers outside of the classroom that prevent students from engaging in critical STEM activities; and an overreliance on traditional teaching and coursework.
“Equitable university policies along with inclusive program and course design can create STEM success,” Lee said. “There is always room for growth, but this must start with self-reflection and an open mind.”
Lee believes a fundamental starting point for change lies in creating a campus-wide mindset of the “student-ready college.” For too long, he said, higher education has been fundamentally institutional, and this institutionalization has led to deep and systemic obstacles preventing underserved students from completing their education.
“It is time to stop simply seeking out the best students,” Lee said. “It is time to educate our students to be the best. At Rutgers–Camden, we can build a sound intellectual environment that is known for diverse perspectives and experiences.
LEE
Can AI Improve Public Safety?
BY CAROLINE BROBEIL
TECHNOLOGY has long provided the ability to evaluate and understand large amounts of data, but recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have made the process faster and more powerful, with potential applications multiplying exponentially.
For Sheikh Rabiul Islam, an assistant professor of computer science at Rutgers University–Camden, one of those applications is creating safer communities. Islam recently co-authored two different research papers examining how AI could be used to address serious community threats: potential school shootings and alcohol-related road fatalities.
“In both cases, this research represents a significant step toward implementing the methods developed and, more generally, how knowledge-infused artificial intelligence may be used eventually in realworld scenarios,” Islam said.
Islam and his team sought to develop possible prevention strategies with AI is the increasingly common case of a school shooter. This research is the basis of the paper “Predicting Potential School Shooters from Social Media Posts.”
While these incidents are shocking when they happen, offenders often exhibit warning signs on social media that go undetected or unreported.
“We aimed to create a multimodal model made up of several variables capable of predicting sentiments simultaneously from photos and text across all of the major social networking platforms, anticipating that this would generate a unified prediction,” Islam said.
These variables were used to train the AI model in the integrated system, which allowed social media posts to be evaluated as positive or negative. The analysis revealed a reasonable level of accuracy, with the team recommending further research to make the model more robust, focusing on eventual adoption by public safety entities.
“The eventual goal for a real-world implementation and deployment of such a system would be to analyze real-time posts from multiple social media platforms,” the team wrote.
Assisting law enforcement agencies tasked with protecting the public's safety was the focus of the second research paper Islam recently completed, "Aiming to Minimize Alcohol-Impaired Road Fatalities: Utilizing Fairness-Aware and Domain Knowledge-Infused Artificial Intelligence.”
“Biases have been observed through racial profiling, leading to some groups and geographical areas facing fewer DUI tests, resulting in many actual DUI incidents going undetected, ultimately leading to a higher number of fatalities,” the paper notes. Islam and his co-authors sought to leverage AI-supported data analysis to map DUI-related fatalities more fairly and impartially to support the allocation of policing resources, hopefully leading to a reduction in DUI-related deaths and a significant positive impact on road safety.
Islam and the team again developed a multivariable approach, including data on population, age, and the per-capita income of residents. Again, the AI-powered model proved effective, providing insight into how public safety officials could improve the communities they serve. Islam and the team recommended additional research to enhance the model's capabilities and sharpen the resulting predictions.
In this and all of his other research, Islam sees a future where AI can support making communities safer and stronger.
“Significant research is underway in the field of computational social science, and it is not unimaginable that AI may be used in the near future to fight poverty, promote health and well-being, support broad educational improvements, achieve gender equity, address climate change, and reduce inequalities,” Islam said. "Many people are concerned about the potential impact of AI, but I think it has the potential to foster peace and justice across the globe."
ISLAM
Saved But Enslaved: Exploring Black and Indigenous Roots in Plymouth's First
Church
English professor’s two-year grant will help trace the spiritual lives of enslaved church congregants
BY CHRISTINA LYNN
In 1620, in the seaside town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Pilgrims founded what is today known as the First Parish Church of Plymouth. A grant-funded Rutgers University–Camden study is unveiling the untold history of Black and Indigenous membership in Plymouth’s first church through the accounts of two enslaved, married congregants.
First Parish Church of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Getty Images
Keith Green, associate professor of English and director of the Rutgers–Camden Africana Studies program, secured a Rutgers University Academic Affairs Research Council Grant for his project “Saved but Enslaved: Briton Hammon, Hannah Hovey, and the Earliest Black and Indigenous Members of Plymouth’s First Church, 17081783.” The two-year project will contribute to scholarship that shows slavery was indeed present in colonial New England. Through estate and church records, Green will also produce an unprecedented recording of Black and Indigenous membership in the Pilgrims’ founding American church.
“The church was a symbol of religious independence. It was about starting what became the American dream. It showed you could have your own faith and traditions,” Green said. “The story here is that people of color were building those traditions as well.”
Green has long studied Hammon, an enslaved Black sailor believed to have written the first slave narrative in 1760. The professor’s research pivoted when he discovered Hammon’s marriage to Hannah Hovey and her longstanding connection to the church.
Hovey joined the First Church of Plymouth in 1748 amid the Great Awakening, a period of religious revivals in the 18th century. “Women and people of color were flocking to churches in numbers that they weren't before. And Hannah Hovey is definitely a part of that generation of people of color who were coming into congregational churches in the colonial era,” Green said. “She represents the experiences of many people of color during this period in finding a relationship to faith.”
Green and Rutgers–Camden research assistants from across undergraduate and graduate English and history programs have collected data for the project through Plymouth Church Records, a detailed written history of the church from its inception until deep into the 19th century. By tracing the church’s record of events, Green and his team could confirm its worshippers included enslaved individuals.
The researchers have also combed through probate documents, which allocate an estate upon a person’s death, from the church’s white parishioners, in what Green explained as a kind of “reverse engineering.”
Slaveholders left detailed accounts of the enslaved as possessions in their estate inventories, from which Green and researchers have extracted data. “We've been using the probate documents to corroborate what we're seeing in the church minutes, but also, hopefully, to expand our sense of what their lives might have been,” Green said.
"The church was a symbol of religious independence. It was about starting what became the American dream. It showed you could have your own faith and traditions. The story here is that people of color were building those traditions as well.”
KEITH GREEN
The research team hopes to uncover more about the community of faith in which Hammon, Hovey, and other enslaved congregants worshipped. Green explained that in the 18th century, Black and Indigenous slaves had been shipped to America from the Caribbean or West Africa with their own unique and complex traditions of spirituality. At the First Church of Christ of Plymouth, they would have sat in “Negro pews,” either in the back or balcony of the church, and received Communion last. “We want to learn more about the nature of their religious experiences, what it felt like for them to be in the church, and their understanding of faith,” Green said.
What the team has uncovered since the project launched last fall has confirmed details about Hammon and Hovey that propel Green’s research forward. One question the team had when they first started the project was whether Hammon and Hovey were the only people of color to be married in Plymouth’s first church. Their research has uncovered that they were not.
“They had children and formed families. I think that's a beautiful story to tell: Despite systems of oppression, people found each other,” Green said.
Fast, Furious, and Cheap
The Unstoppable Rise of Novelty Goods In America
BY EILEEN REINHARD
Research Week kicked off at Rutgers University–Camden with a keynote lecture, “The Latest Novelties: New Goods and New Ideas in 19thCentury America,” presented by Professor of History Wendy Woloson. It certainly was novel for a historian to be the centerpiece of this principal Research Week event, the Seventh Annual Faculty Fellowship Lecture.
Vice Chancellor of Research Thomas Risch said he was delighted to have Woloson lead the week because it is important that the word “research” is not simply defined as inquiry into the natural and hard sciences.
“Research is often thought about in very narrow terms,” Risch said. “We tend to only think about the person in the lab with the white coat on, toiling away in anonymity. However, research is so much more than that; it is authorship, scholarship, and creative activity.”
Wendy Woloson, professor of history, gives a lecture during Research Week 2024.
Woloson, author of Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America, explored how the rise of novelty goods, from the 19th century to the “Temufication” of today’s America, forms a complex stream of perpetual distraction. These disposable interruptions have impacted not only material culture but other aspects of American life, including consumerism, the rapid expansion of capitalism, growing tensions between urban and rural life, and even how the concept of time has compressed and sped up in the face of so many readily available novelties.
“We used to take more care with things,” Woloson said. “We mended, repurposed, passed down functional possessions, and made or bought things that were robust and wellcrafted.”
Woloson said the rising tide of cheap goods became a flood in the 19th century with the arrival of eye-catching items like fortune-telling mermaids, “magical” labor-saving kitchen appliances, disposable games and puzzles, and other cheap products that promised (but may not have delivered) a better lifestyle.
“Today we have Temu. The growth of this company says it all. The churn for new goods is now relentless."
WENDY WOLOSON
Woloson provided examples of her archival research in the form of newspaper and magazine articles and advertisements, analytics, and statistics. She showed how marketing was used to pique the interest of an increasingly bored American public looking for ways to lighten workloads both on farms and in the home. She described how central to the spread of such novelty goods, particularly in rural areas, were the many peddlers who morphed into the traveling salesmen that flourished across the country in the 20th century, selling everything from encyclopedias to hairbrushes, and much more.
“Today we have Temu,” Woloson said, referring to the giant Chinese online marketplace that sells heavily discounted consumer goods. “The
growth of this company says it all. The churn for new goods is now relentless.” Woloson noted that Temu’s sales rose exponentially since 2022.
During a lively Q&A, Rutgers–Camden Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis was first to raise his hand. “As the eldest grandson, it was my duty to keep my grandmother company in the kitchen while she cooked,” he said, adding that he still cherishes her cast-iron skillet as his prized family heirloom.
Tillis said that in these days of hyper consumerism, “we are at risk of forgetting not just our past, but the value of our family connections.”
Woloson, who delivered her lecture with facts, figures, and a measure of good humor, ensured each attendee left with a contemporary version of the fortune-telling mermaid—a “miracle fish.” Placed in the palm, the thin, red, plastic fortune-telling fish—according to how it moves—will reveal if the user is in love, is indifferent, fickle, passionate, false, or even dead. Holy crap, indeed.
Woloson is the recipient of a 2023 Chancellor’s Grant for Research.
Wendy Woloson, professor of history (center), alongside Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis (left), and Vice Chancellor of Research Thomas Risch (right).
Students present in the campus center during Research Week 2024.
Senior Executive Alumnus Reaching Students by Teaching the Business of Nursing
BY EILEEN REINHARD
Gregory Passanante, DNP, MBA, RN, CNOR, is committed, passionate, and innovative in his career as an executive leader for Shriners Hospital for Children. Recently, Passanante has added another skill to his CV: thought provoking teacher.
Passanante, a 2023 graduate of the Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden’s doctor of nursing practice program, has returned to his alma mater as a lecturer. Passanante is currently teaching a graduate-level course in information technology practices that will support his students as they strive to become nursing leaders.
“I show the students what it means to embrace telehealth and other types of electronic technologies that are now part of the business of nursing,” Passanante said. “Nurses need to be willing participants in the many health systems that are digital and online.”
Passanante’s “day job” is northeast market administrator at Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, where he also oversees locations in Erie, Pa.; Springfield, Mass.; and Boston. In what is effectively a CEOlevel position, Passanante bears responsibility for aligning the goals and mission of Shriners.
“What I do is very removed from clinical care, but if all of Shriners’ systems, facilities, and staff were not working together, we would not be a seamless organization,” Passanante said. “The medical mission of Shriners needs high-level organizational support, which transforms the hospital without getting in the way. I conduct a behind-the-scenes balancing act that puts the patient first.”
PASSANANTE
This also means that Passanante keeps the hospital regulatory compliant and financially sound.
Bottom line is I am a change manager,” Passanante said “Health care requires a lot of oversight, especially in areas like business development. It is important to stay strategically responsive in order for Shriners to reach as many children as possible.”
Nursing was not Passanante’s undergraduate major. He has a bachelor of science degree in management from Rutgers School of Business–Camden. But there was something missing for him in the corporate world. Inspired by his wife, Lynn, who is a registered nurse, Passanante returned to school to obtain another bachelor’s degree, this time in nursing science, but not before he acquired an MBA. And Passanante’s DNP aids him in putting health care research into practice.
“I loved working in patient care but knew I would be able to contribute as a manager of clinical and nonclinical staff, which grew into managing operations. My career path, in a roundabout way, has brought me back to the classroom because, for my students, learning the business end of nursing is vital to good health care.”
GREGORY PASSANANTE
“I believe I am still taking care of patients,” Passanante said. “I do see both sides. Teaching this course is my contribution toward helping tomorrow’s clinicians become good leaders. “I loved working in patient care but knew I would be able to contribute as a manager of clinical and non-clinical staff, which grew into managing operations. My career path, in a roundabout way, has brought me back to the classroom because, for my students, learning the business end of nursing is vital to good health care.”
As an alumnus, Passanante kept in touch with the nursing school through friendships with the faculty. He said he was encouraged by the former and current deans to think about becoming a lecturer because of his unique skill set.
“I finally jumped in,” Passanante said. “And I am happy to say it’s a great experience.”
According to Sandra Richtermeyer, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Rutgers–Camden, Passanante is an excellent case study in what makes the university’s teaching lecturers so important.
“Many of our lecturers have valuable real-world experience. This shows our students the kinds of career paths that are possible,” Richtermeyer said. “Greg is an exemplary alumnus who has achieved so much, yet he is generous enough to return to Rutgers–Camden and guide our nursing students toward success.”
Photos courtesy of Michael Passanante
EXPERTISE IN CAMDEN
Planting Seeds with Poetry
Pulitzer Prize winner poet reflects on the power and importance of provocative storytelling by Black writers
BY CAROLINE BROBEIL
ARutgers–Camden Author Joins Today Show Book Club with Powerful New Novel
English professor Lauren Grodstein’s work of historical fiction spotlights a little-known World War II archive
BY CHRISTINA LYNN
s he was working on his new anthology of poetry, Spectral Evidence, Gregory Pardlo reflected on race relations in the United States. He was struck by the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the dynamics of the confrontation between Brown and Darren Wilson, a police officer. Wilson testified before a grand jury that he had been afraid for his life and referred to Brown as a demon, even though they were about the same size and Brown was unarmed.
“I had been reading about ‘monster theory’— the ways, as a society, we produce the monsters we need—and I kept returning to the question of why he needed Michael Brown to be a monster,” said Pardlo, an associate professor in the Department of English and Communication at Rutgers University–Camden and co-director of the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2015 for the collection Digest.
“The tension running through this book is the push and pull between not wanting to face the horror and emotional devastation of what happened in Ferguson and the intellectual need to understand it," Pardlo said. "As James Baldwin once said: ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’”
For Pardlo—and the larger Black community— the power of language and the written word is uniquely important in sharing the truth of Black history. For centuries, anti-literacy laws were enacted to uphold the institution of slavery and, after the Civil War, maintain white supremacy.
“I’ve long had a fascination with the written word, because there is a lingering sense that my community has been prohibited or prevented from indulging in it. Therefore, having a prowess of language is subversive, liberatory, and affirming,” Pardlo said.
Throughout American history, great artists and intellectuals have used language in just these ways – from the subversive to the affirming – to tell the stories and journey of Black America. From the personal narratives of Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs to the lyrical poems of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks, Black artists have used the written word to share a spectrum of experiences with the Black community and beyond.
“It’s so easy to forget how constructed our reality is,” Pardlo said. “Stories remind us that people experience the world in different ways, and stories told by marginalized writers allow readers to experience the world from diverse perspectives.”
The goal of the writer, Pardlo emphasized, is to provoke the reader into making better choices about how they interact with others and the world. Black writers are essential catalysts to that provocation, a necessary part of leading America toward a more inclusive, representative, and honest future.
“If we don't analyze and critique what we've been told, whatever story we construct will perpetrate the inequalities we've experienced," Pardlo said. “To write from a place of empowerment, a Black writer has to revisit and point out the historical lies we’ve been told.”
A TRIP to Warsaw inspired Rutgers University in Camden English Professor Lauren Grodstein’s fifth novel, We Must Not Think of Ourselves, which was published November 28 by Algonquin Books and is racking up national accolades.
While touring Poland with her family, Grodstein learned of the Oneg Shabbat archive, a covert collection that preserves Jewish history by documenting what life was like in the Warsaw Ghetto during the German occupation. “During that trip, I came across this unbelievable trove of documents, newspapers, and diary entries,” she said. “I just thought, ‘There are so many novels here, so maybe I'll try to write one.’”
Grodstein’s main character, an archivist and schoolteacher named Adam, records testimonies, capturing both the quotidian moments and nightmarish realities of life in the Warsaw Ghetto. In her research, Grodstein was surprised to learn how much the ghetto system relied on children to smuggle food. “The Nazis only allowed about 250 calories a day per resident, which obviously isn't enough to live,” she said. “So, from the very beginning, children smuggled food through tunnels underneath the ghetto walls.”
Toward the middle of the book, the line “We must not think of ourselves” appears, which eventually became the book’s title. Grodstein said this phrase is a call to Shiva, a tradition observed in the week after a Jewish person dies, in which mourners are asked to turn mirrors around and sit on uncomfortable chairs in order to keep their attention on the deceased.
“The title is a call to Shiva for all the people who never had anyone to sit Shiva for them,” Grodstein said.
PARDLO
The novel has already surfaced on several yearend lists but hit an apex with its selection to The Today Show’s popular Read with Jenna [Bush Hager] Book Club. As the pick for December 2023, Grodstein’s novel joins the works of such celebrated authors as Toni Morrison, Ann Patchett, and Judy Blume among the club’s selections.
Grodstein was told her book would be the year’s last Read with Jenna pick back in February but had to keep the news under wraps for nearly a year. After the announcement, the author met with Today Show host Bush Hager to tape a segment about the novel.
“It was really magical. I know how lucky I am. It's very hard for literary fiction to penetrate, to get out in the world. And to have someone to hold your book up in front of the country is just amazing.”
While promoting her book, Grodstein has continued to serve as director of the MFA program in writing at Rutgers–Camden, where she has taught for 18 years. This double duty should serve her students well. “It’s hard to separate my writing life from my teaching life because they inform each other so much,” she said. “All the experiences I've had, doing this now for more than half my life, I bring to the classroom with me.”
“I want my experiences to be useful to students,” Grodstein said. “I try to listen to my students and let them guide me toward what they want out of their work. And I do my best to help them get there.”
Pick n Pay it Forward
Retail leader shares her philosophy with Rutgers–Camden:
“Doing good is good business.”
BY CAROLINE BROBEIL
Suzanne Ackerman, a native South African, can sum up her approach to business and life with one word: Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a word from the Zulu language that emphasizes the interconnectedness of all people.
“You are who you are because of the people around you,” said Ackerman, an international professor of practice at Rutgers School of Business–Camden and former chairman of Pick n Pay, one of the largest retailers in South Africa, with more than 90,000 employees, 2,200 stores in eight African countries, and an annual revenue of nearly $6 billion. As an international professor of practice, she engages with and mentors students while sharing her experiences as a leader of a large multinational organization.
Ackerman recently spent two weeks at Rutgers–Camden, connecting with the university community. Her message to students was that corporate social responsibility is essential to doing business.
“Profits are the bloodline of any business, but it’s how you redistribute your resources and the impact that you have on society that will ultimately make the difference,” Ackerman said. “You need to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say you are a good corporate citizen. That means taking care of young people, employees, customers, and being part of the community you serve.”
Ackerman’s father, Raymond, founded Pick n Pay in 1967, and the company has long been at the forefront of South Africa’s fight against racism. In 1969, the company’s first Black employee was promoted to a managerial position even though anti-apartheid laws prohibited such actions. Pick n Pay went on to champion fair housing, lower prices for essential products, and an end to the apartheid system.
(left
Shy Yi, assistant dean of external partnerships, Rutgers School of Business–Camden; Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis; Suzanne Ackerman, Cal Maradonna, off-campus BBA program manager, Rutgers School of Business–Camden; Monica Adya, dean of Rutgers School of Business–Camden
In a place like South Africa, where inequality is so blatant, corporations have an absolute responsibility to take care of society's needs when the government fails to do so. It is our job to lead the way, to repair the inequalities of the past so we can prepare our customers and employees for an even better future.
That same sense of responsibility drove Ackerman to start the Feed the Nation Foundation shortly after the pandemic shut down much of South Africa in 2020. The organization provides food assistance to schoolchildren and those affected by natural disasters, emergencies, and civil unrest. While many doubted the Foundation could get off the ground amid stiff odds and logistical problems, it was a success, raising more than $7 million in its first ten days and distributing more than 650 tons of food to those in desperate need.
Ackerman hopes to demonstrate that corporate social responsibility can have a genuine impact and be more than just a mission statement. To that end, she visited the Food Bank of South Jersey and the LEAP Academy University School. She offered several lectures open to the public and served as a guest speaker in multiple classes, also meeting with students individually and in small groups to share advice and answer questions.
“If I can open the eyes of just one student or faculty member to a different way of doing business and living life, my time here has been well spent,” Ackerman said.
SUZANNE ACKERMAN
to right)
Photos courtesy of Algonquin Books
GRODSTEIN
Doctoral Candidate Named Finalist for Fulbright Student Award
Montrell Sanders is poised to return to Fiji, where he previously served as a Peace Corps volunteer
BY DUSTIN PETZOLD
Rutgers University–Camden is proud to announce that Montrell Sanders, a doctoral student in public affairs, has been named a finalist for the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Award. Sanders is the first Rutgers–Camden student to receive this designation for a Fulbright research award since 2017, and, should he accept the opportunity, will travel to Fiji to conduct research for his doctoral dissertation.
“I am incredibly proud of Montrell Sanders for emerging from an extremely competitive selection process to become a Fulbright finalist,” said Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis. “His academic excellence has been evident throughout his Rutgers–Camden career, and this honor speaks to the importance he—with the full support of the university community—places on international collaboration and discovery.”
Sanders came to Rutgers–Camden in the fall of 2018 to pursue his master’s degree in public administration, which he received in May 2020. He then continued his studies at the university, earning his master of science in public affairs in 2022, and is on track to receive a doctorate of public affairs in May 2025. During his time at Rutgers–Camden, he has conducted research at the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and served as a graduate fellow at the Equity Research Cooperative. His current scholarship focuses on the experiences of minority students at predominantly white institutions of higher learning.
Sanders has maintained strong ties to Fiji, where he served as a volunteer for the Votua Water Initiative, a Peace Corps-affiliated effort. Sanders helped the Votua Village secure a grant for the design and implementation of a new water source. Upon completion of the project, which Sanders helped to oversee, Votua residents had a reliable source of clean water.
“Having worked with Montrell on this application, I am incredibly proud that he has been named a Fulbright finalist,” said Laura Collins, director of the Office of Scholar Development and Fellowship Advising (OSDFA). “He is the first student in my tenure to be recognized as a Fulbright finalist for a research project. He will, no doubt, be an outstanding cultural ambassador and representative of Rutgers–Camden.”
The OSDFA assists current students and alumni with applications to national fellowship programs, including the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. This post-graduate opportunity is available to anyone who will hold a bachelor’s degree by the program start date. OSDFA staff supports applicants through every stage of the process, from navigating the application to writing and preparing competitive materials. Interested students and alumni are encouraged to visit the Fulbright website and complete a Fulbright Interest Form to learn more. The national deadline to submit a Fulbright application is Tuesday, October 8; however, the deadline to apply with full support from the campus committee is Friday, August 30, so interested candidates are encouraged to act early.
A Degree 44 Years in the Making
62-year-old Rutgers–Camden senior returned to college later in life and is receiving her undergraduate degree
BY CAROLINE BROBEIL
Born during the heart of the Civil Rights Movement and raised in the turbulent decades that followed, Luegerther “Jackie” Sykes has experienced more than a few challenges. But as the Rutgers University–Camden community saw during Commencement Week 2024, she never allowed those challenges to dampen her interest in pursuing an education.
Sykes graduated from the Rutgers–Camden College of Arts and Science in May with a degree in economics, more than four decades after she started her coursework in the summer of 1980. The celebratory moment, so many years in the making, prompted Sykes to reflect on how far she has come.
“It was different when I first started," Sykes said. “The library had books—that was our technology.” She has happy memories of the Raptor Roost in the Campus Center, where she taught her son to play pool.
She attended Rutgers–Camden with support from the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF), which provides financial assistance and support services, including counseling, tutoring, and developmental coursework for individuals from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
"I was able to start a few months early because of the EOF program, which helped me become accustomed to what would be expected of me in college," Sykes said.
By 1983, Sykes was married and had three children, but she remained committed to her studies and continued to take classes even as she cared for her family and worked outside the home. She remembers those early years very fondly.
“We were living in East Camden, and my children were in daycare, and together we would take the bus down to campus, and on nice days, we'd walk home after I was finished," Sykes said.
Unfortunately, in 1988, financial pressures forced her to put her part-time studies on hold. She went on to have a successful professional career in a variety of roles, eventually obtaining her paralegal certificate and landing at a local law firm.
Life threw Sykes another curveball in the early 2000s: Her son, Robert Campbell, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Because the progression of his disease quickly led him to become wheelchair-bound, Sykes decided to leave her job and seek training as a home health care aide so she could care for her son full time.
“It was very difficult to find reliable care," said Sykes, "When I learned that New Jersey allows individuals to request a family member be their designated caregiver, I decided to pursue the training needed to make that happen."
The training to become a certified caregiver included classroom instruction and clinical training on various topics, including infection control, personal care, and transferring individuals safely in and out of a wheelchair. She also learned to do advanced tracheostomy care after her son suffered a severe bout of pneumonia that required a three-month stay in the intensive care unit at Cooper Hospital.
“It was rough at first, but it all got easier over time,” Sykes said. She came to embrace her new role as her son's full-time caregiver but never imagined it would lead her back to Rutgers–Camden. However, in 2016, that is precisely what happened.
“I started coming to campus for meetings with a group that focused on caregiving specifically for people with MS," Sykes said. “One day, out of curiosity, I went to the registrar's office to see where I stood with my degree, and to my surprise, I was only 11 credits shy of graduation."
Sykes reenrolled in 2016 as an economics major, eager to return to the subject that was her focus and passion so many years ago. “Economics has so many layers. It's history, politics, and finance all rolled into one,” she said.
Not surprisingly, the campus Sykes returned to was drastically different from the one she left in 1988, physically and technologically. In addition, she faced the challenge of finding care for her son so she could attend class. Eventually, Sykes decided to bring him with her. While her journey to degree completion was not easy, she was not fazed worried by returning to school with students less than half her age.
“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t worried about my age gap,” Sykes said. “I was more worried about whether I would be able to manage all the new technology that had come along since I was last in school. Years ago, we just used graph paper; there were no software programs."
Sykes credits the university community with helping her get to graduation day. Those who know her credit her tenacity and delight in learning as a significant part of her success.
“Jackie expressed unparalleled joy when she was able to overcome a difficult problem,” said Selim Cakmakli, an assistant professor in the Rutgers–Camden Department of Economics. Sykes took the course Forecasting and Business Cycles with Cakmakli in the fall of 2023 and recalled how he patiently assisted her in understanding the software needed to succeed in the class.
While her joy and zest for life were on display as she crossed the stage at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion to receive her diploma, what she feels more than anything is gratitude.
"I am so grateful to get my degree after all these years," said Sykes. "I am a senior citizen now, and I'm just so glad I came back to Rutgers–Camden to pursue my goal of getting my degree."
| Sykes alongside her son, Robert.
Fine Arts Trailblazer: Award-Winning Student Earns First Rutgers–Camden BFA
BY CHRISTINA LYNN
In 2023, Rutgers University–Camden launched its BFA program with three concentrations, including studio art and expanded media. Tracy Tse CCAS’24 realized she had already taken many of the required classes in the Department of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts and sought more time to build her portfolio. She stayed an additional year to complete the more intensive BFA.
Now, as the first graduate of the program, Tse sees herself reflecting more career possibilities in art for undergraduates at Rutgers–Camden. “I feel some people look down on art because they don't quite understand how the art world works: they say you’re going to be ‘a starving artist,’ why bother spending so much money? I'm kind of the gateway for people to actually learn what artists are about or what we can do as artists,” she said. “I also feel I'm making my department proud,” she added.
As an art major at Camden County College, Tse often visited her sister, who attended Rutgers–Camden, at her campus about 20 minutes away. She observed the Campus Quad’s hustle and bustle during free period as students got together and socialized. Seeing the Senior Thesis Show at the Stedman Gallery, Tse knew instinctively she wanted to be here. “When I saw the seniors’ works, I wanted to be part of this art community,” she said. “I fell in love with Rutgers.” The first-generation student transferred to the College of Arts and Sciences and quickly excelled in art courses and minors in art history and digital studies. She was recently inducted into the Athenaeum Honor Society.
Tse, who views herself as a textile artist, first learned how to sew on an industrial sewing machine in her family’s tailor shop. “It was super fast, I didn't want to step on the pedals,” she recalled. “I started just using my hands.” By middle school, she was advanced enough on the machine to sew her own Halloween costume. Up until and through high school, she helped her grandparents with hemming, sewing, and other alteration needs for the business.
Tracy Tse CCAS'24
"Some people look down on art because they don't quite understand how the art world works. If you’re going to be a 'starving artist,' why bother? I'm kind of the gateway for people to learn who artists really are and what we can do professionally."
TRACY TSE
Her extensive experience as a seamstress and affinity for textiles evolved into her academic work. At last year’s Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, she presented an art history project in which she recreated three-dimensional outfits from two-dimensional paintings. Intrigued by the red plastic string she observed wrapped around produce in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, Tse wove the material, called plarn, into wall art and wearables.
In another work, which Tse calls “Weaving Code”(seen to the right), art converges with science. She received a Chancellors Research Grant, exploring how to incorporate binary, Morse, or QR messages into her art. She learned how to use a loom and how to code, a nod to her digital studies minor. Tse explained art historians believe the oldest computer may be from a loom or a knitting machine; punch cards would go through the machine, revealing which shaft to open up. That piece of history inspired her to weave words and texts into her work.
The Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts took notice of Tse’s talent and awarded her with the Stedman Gallery Purchase Prize. This honor, given to a graduating student in the Senior Thesis Exhibition, includes a cash prize and the inclusion of one of the student’s piece’s in the Center’s permanent collection of over 700 works of art. “We are excited to own her works that demonstrate the potential for fiber art to be used conceptually,” said Jake Foster, Gallery and Public Programs Coordinator.
The senior, now thinking of graduate school and seeking artist residencies, is ever mindful of the tools she gleaned in her BFA journey. Pointing to one such course, she learned how to craft an artist statement, build a website, and set up one’s work for galleries. “It was so helpful to learn the business side of being an artist,” she said. “This really opens up a lot of doors for me.”
Tracy Tse alongside her piece "Red Outfit"
"Weaving Code"
Proudly Stepping into the Nursing Profession
Nursing student Joseph Medina is excited to become a fully participating member of a distinguished profession that blends compassion and skill
BY EILEEN REINHARD
Joseph Medina SNC’24 has grown into his chosen profession as a first-generation student guided by mentors and advisors he holds in high regard. And he is a Camden native who stayed local because he believes in the city where he was born.
Soft spoken but with a lot to say, Medina said he unquestionably owes any success that he may achieve—now and down the road—to his parents. “I saw my parents go to work every day in scrubs,” Medina said. “They worked so hard but always spoke with compassion about the patients they helped. That made a lasting impact on me.”
Medina’s parents, Zoraida Rivera and Joseph Medina Sr., were certified nursing assistants (CNAs). “They have years of experience and were positive role models,” Medina said. “I recognize the sacrifices they made for me. They always encouraged me to continue my education and to take the next step further.”
Medina’s education was challenged by the pandemic, yet he was able to graduate from Camden County College with an associate’s degree and move on to Rutgers–Camden, where he weathered lockdown to achieve his career goals. He is currently working as a unit nurse at Cooper Hospital in Camden.
Joseph Medina SNC'24
And while there is a rising number of male nurses, the national rate, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is around 12 percent. At Rutgers–Camden, over 17 percent of nursing students are male. Medina said he sees the increase in male nurses as a good thing, but says it is more relevant to consider that statistic in view of the mission of the whole nursing profession. “For nurses, patient care is primary, and training for nurses focuses on how to provide the best patient outcomes,” Medina said. “All nurses share that focus.”
Medina praised his professors for delivering a quality education. He said his classes were enlightening, and he felt guided and supported throughout his time in the nursing school. He felt particularly mentored by Joseph Cipriano, associate dean of graduate programs and advanced nursing practice.
“Joseph Medina has been a great student,” Cipriano said. “He has a bright future, and I look forward to seeing his progress.”
Last spring, Medina traveled on a service-learning journey to Guatemala with a group of fellow students and faculty, including Cipriano.
“We were able to work in the Highlands with the Maya and help them improve their community health while we learned about their culture and history,” Medina said. “I was able to do health screenings, and the whole trip was a wonderful experience and has had a lasting impact on my life.”
“Nursing is so varied,” Medina said. “I love the field. The priority is to support the patient, and that is seriously rewarding. Also, I get to learn alongside fellow nurses who make work feel like a family. My critical thinking skills grow every day.”
JOSEPH MEDINA
One of the projects Medina worked on in Guatemala was building cooking stoves designed to cut down on toxic fumes and soot inhalation. He said the benefit of this project to the local population is that conditions from early onset asthma to cases of acute respiratory infections, including pneumonia, can be reduced by improved air quality.
Going forward, Medina will strengthen his critical care experience at Cooper Hospital; however, he feels that in the not-too-distant future, he may consider returning to Rutgers–Camden as a student in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program.
Rutgers–Camden First-year Chemistry
Major Secures NASASponsored Internship
With NASA funding, Sophia Mora furthers biochemistry work in drug delivery
BY CHRISTINA LYNN
In the few short months since she started her college career at Rutgers University–Camden, chemistry major Sophia Mora secured a NASAsponsored internship, where she is uncovering new ways to target drug delivery in breast cancer patients. The work is personal, as her father’s side of the family has a history of the disease. The first-year, first-generation student, who has loved science her entire life, selected the biochemistry track at Rutgers–Camden precisely for its human applications.
“It’s a field that resonated with me,” Mora said. “The statistics we use aren’t simply numbers; there are people behind it.”
Mora, from South Carolina, joined the lab of Youwen “Warren” Zhang, assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, soon after she enrolled at Rutgers–Camden this past fall. He encouraged her to apply for the New Jersey Space Grant Consortium’s academic year internship, a NASA-sponsored program that provides a stipend for undergraduates at state schools to conduct research in STEM or spacerelated fields.
Mora and Zhang’s work involves exosomes, tiny structures found inside cells that contain DNA markers, which they are studying to develop methods to target cancer medications. By analyzing these exosomes through a process known as nanopore sensing, the researchers can identify the presence of proteins or enzymes and attach medications to the cells. Their goal is to develop a more specific and potentially less invasive method of drug delivery than chemotherapy using a patient’s own DNA. Mora will present her data and findings at a NASA academic internship convention this spring.
She estimated her work for the internship adds up to about three or four hours per day on top of her coursework. Still, she happily extends her campus activities to the weekends with Saturday Scholars, a program for first-year, mostly first-generation pre-med students. The group, which meets one Saturday per month, receives career counseling, tours area health care organizations, and taps into to scholarship and fellowship opportunities. “We’ve had medical students and alumni speak to us about their experiences and how they come from similar backgrounds,” Mora said. “You feel if they can get in, you can get in.”
Mora trained and served as an emergency medical technician in her hometown and is exploring that option near campus. Looking further ahead, Mora is drawn to emergency medicine. “I would love to be in a space where I'm seeing different things every day, and I feel like ER is one of those places,” she said. However, she hasn’t ruled out a research career after her experience this year.
“I have a love for research to the point that I sometimes wonder what I could ever care about more than this,” Mora said. “I choose to go beyond because I love being here. It's an environment for growth.”
Mora also credited Zhang with fostering a culture conducive to academic and professional growth. “Working with him, you want to not only improve yourself, but improve the lot for everyone else,” she said.
Mora also acknowledged she is one of many female students on campus but does not see herself represented in the STEM fields—and she has already made strides to change that.
“I help all my female friends find opportunities,” Mora said. “I helped one of my friends find research in the forensic lab. Most people just need someone to show them.”
Sophia Mora alongside Youwen “Warren” Zhang, assistant professor of chemistry
MORA
History Alumna Keeping the Past Alive in the Present
BY EILEEN REINHARD
Rutgers–Camden history graduate Emily Winters CCAS’21 GSC’23 stepped quickly into a career in public history. At Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, site of the First Continental Congress in 1774, Winters—the hall’s operations manager and development associate—is collecting not only facts but also artifacts and crafts of the past, helping to continue their relevance.
Modest about her achievement of joining the small but expert team of historians and administrators at Carpenters’ Hall shortly after graduating in May 2023 with a master’s degree in history, Winters is passionate about keeping history alive.
“This is my first job after graduation, and I am thrilled to be at Carpenters’ Hall,” said Winters. “History offers multiple layers of interpretation, and the story being told on this site is important not only as history but also as part of the ongoing story about the growth and development of American culture.”
Although privately owned, Carpenters’ Hall hosts around 400 visitors per day in a highly visible part of Independence Mall, a three-block section of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. The area surrounding Carpenters’ Hall is known as America’s most historic square mile, where visitors can take in some of the most significant sites that tell the story of the American Revolution. Nearby to Carpenters’ Hall is Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America’s founding fathers.
Archival images of Carpenters' Hall
Carpenters’ Hall, a Georgian-style architectural gem completed in 1774, is home to the oldest craft guild still existing in America, the Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia. The Carpenters’ Company was modeled on London’s Worshipful Company of Carpenters, a livery company dating back to the 1400s. Members today include professionals representing the architecture, engineering, and building trades. Before its opening as a museum in 1857, Carpenters’ Hall was rented to numerous tenants, including the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin.
Emily Winters CCAS’21, GSC’23
From 1794 to 1797, Carpenters’ Hall was home to the Bank of the United States, organized by the then Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. There remains a large window on the ground floor that Hamilton installed so light could flood in. He believed there should be no shadows in banking.
Carpenters’ Hall is celebrating two significant dates this year: the 250th Anniversary of the completion of the Hall and the First Continental Congress, and the 300th Anniversary of the founding of the Carpenters’ Company. September marks the 250th anniversary of when delegates from 12 of Britain’s 13 American colonies met there to discuss and decide upon America’s future under Britain’s growing aggression. In July, Carpenters’ Hall will host a Young People’s Continental Congress for high school students and their teachers, and on weekends in September and October, visitors will be able to see live performances exploring debates from the First Continental Congress.
Winters organized a traditional trade and crafts fair on the last weekend in April and the first three weekends in May. Visitors enjoyed demonstrations of carpentry, brickwork, blacksmithing, and more.
Winters said her Rutgers–Camden education provided her with the support to pursue her career with confidence. Not wanting, at least just yet, to head into academia, she said the history faculty helped her explore archival work in the University’s New Brunswick archives and other such opportunities in the city, and county, of Philadelphia.
“Emily has pursued a career as a professional historian with passion, curiosity, and a radical openness to learning and trying new things that is infectious,” Winters’ mentor, Emily Marker, associate professor of history, said. “She is a creative thinker who has so many talents and interests—we, as a profession, are lucky to have her in the field! It is wonderful that Emily is at such a historic and prominent site, continuing to build out this region’s incredible public history sector. I know I speak for all my colleagues when I say the Department of History is tremendously proud of Emily.”
Learn more about Carpenters’ Hall at https://www.carpentershall.org/story
Emily Marker, associate professor of history
Photos courtesy of Carpenters' Hall
Finding an Unexpected Home
Learning abroad shaped Rutgers–Camden alum’s future in the City of Lights
BY CHRISTINA LYNN
It is no exaggeration to say a few chance college courses changed the trajectory of Sheldon Morris’s life. The Rutgers University–Camden alumnus lives in Paris, where he works as an engineering consultant and has planted roots in Europe, which surprises even him some days.
“If you had told me when I was 18, I'd be working in Paris, speaking and understanding French with native speakers, I would have been shocked,” Morris said. “It wasn't even in my realm of possibilities.”
The Paris resident’s first glimpse of European life began across the English Channel while he was still a student at Rutgers–Camden. Originally from Clementon, N.J., Morris transferred to Rutgers and, through an orientation program, discovered the Learning Abroad experience. Rutgers–Camden Learning Abroad integrates international travel—typically a 10-day or two-week trip—into course curriculum. He enrolled in the class “International Perspectives of Forensic Science in England” to fulfill the criminal justice requirement of his sociology major. His trip to the United Kingdom would open his eyes to a brand new adventure.
“It was the first flight of my life,” Morris recalled. “The day we landed, it was my first time abroad. I was the first person in my family to leave the country or have a passport.”
Led by Kimberlee Moran, associate teaching professor of forensic science in the College of Arts and Sciences, Morris and his classmates toured courthouses throughout the country, including London’s central criminal court, known as Old Bailey. There, they observed a case involving a teenager accused of bombing a city subway station. “That was a pretty big case at the time. And it's kind of crazy that we got to witness that,” Morris recalled. Before crossing the pond, Morris had never spoken to a British person before and appreciated discussing UK-based music, television, and movies. “It was interesting to talk with people you don't really get to interact with by where I'm from,” he said.
Back at Rutgers–Camden, an urban studies course called “Neighborhood Change, Social Movements, and the Arts in Germany” piqued Morris’s interest in a second opportunity abroad—his first in a different language.
Morris vividly recounted arriving in Alexanderplatz, a public square in the center of Berlin, with his classmates and Natasha Fletcher, then the director of the Department of Public Policy and Administration, who led the course. “Standing at Alexanderplatz, just looking around, hearing everyone speak German, including Professor Fletcher, was a surreal moment,” he said. In Berlin, Morris discovered an array of urban development projects and how, despite being left in ruins after World War II, the city learned to rebuild its urban fabric over and over again.
The experience inspired Morris to travel independently to Europe just before graduating with degrees in urban studies and sociology in 2019. It also jumpstarted his plan to live abroad long-term. He earned his master’s degree three years later in urban planning and territorial development from l’Ecole d’Urbanisme de Paris while teaching himself French. The alumnus now works on feasibility, needs assessments, and spatial planning projects for a consultancy firm at the company’s location in France, where his fluency in English and French have helped support the firm’s teams in the UK and Paris.
Morris lived for a short time in Brussels while interning for his graduate degree, and he now foresees establishing his home base in either Belgium or France. No matter which country he decides to call home, Morris hopes Rutgers–Camden students will heed his advice: “Be open to new experiences and take advantage of the opportunities available to you. College is a relatively short period of time in your life, but it can be really impactful.”
“The Learning Abroad program changed my life because I didn't really know what to do with myself... But after those international experiences, I found I really enjoyed traveling. I really enjoyed being here in Europe. And it opened my eyes to the fact that there's more to life.”
Sheldon Morris in London, England (left), and in Paris, France (right).
SHELDON MORRIS
Alexanderplatz, Berlin, Germany
Photos courtesy of Sheldon Morris
Building Bridges—and Tunnels—to Positive Change
BY CAROLINE BROBEIL
Alifetime of public service has taught Kris Kolluri SBC'91 that business leaders can serve as catalysts for social good and positive change. As the current chief executive officer of the Gateway Development Commission, which is charged with modernizing the rail tunnels in and out of the New York City area, he is doing just that.
“What I have come to understand from the work I have done throughout my career is that projects like the Gateway program are more than just building tunnels with cement and rebar; we are building portals of opportunity,” Kolluri said.
The Gateway Development Commission was formed in 2019 by New York and New Jersey to update and expand the critical rail infrastructure that connects the two states. This portion of the Northeast Corridor (as it is commonly known) is more than 100 years old, yet it continues to carry more than 200,000 passengers on approximately 450 trains daily. When completed, the project is expected to cost $16.1 billion.
“These tunnels revolutionized transportation when they were built and transformed New York into what it is today,” Kolluri said.“But in 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused the tunnels to flood, which did tremendous damage." Elected leaders who had been reluctant to fund upgrades quickly changed course.
"The tunnels are a single point of failure," said Kolluri. "If those two tunnels fail, service up and down the Northeast Corridor stops, drastically impacting travel and the overall American economy." The project will improve reliability, expand capacity, and ensure the long-term resiliency of the entire system.
A native of India, Kolluri was just a young boy when his family came to the United States in 1985. While much of what he experienced in those early years was new and unfamiliar, he believed strongly in what he saw as America's promise, which was the genesis of his passion for public service.
"I appreciated the opportunity for success that this country offered me," said Kolluri. "America's promise is not an esoteric idea but a value proposition with real meaning."
After graduating from Rutgers–Camden in 1991, he served as a legislative aide to Congressman Rob Andrews and a senior policy advisor to Senator Richard Gephardt. His time on Capitol Hill helped clarify for him how working in government or a public service role can make a genuine difference in the lives of average Americans.
"In my time there, I began to understand the role I could play in driving change," said Kolluri. I appreciated that by having a seat at the table, I could impact the trajectory of policies and legislation that affect the communities we all live in."
While some urged him to do so, Kolluri did not seriously consider running for public office. Instead, after obtaining a master's degree and completing law school, he worked in transportation and infrastructure, holding senior leadership roles at various organizations, including the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the New Jersey Schools Development Authority, and the Camden Community Partnership, Inc.
For Kolluri, choosing public service over a career in the private sector was simply a natural progression of his journey since arriving in the United States in 1985. He sees it as fulfilling the promise offered to him in America as a young boy.
“For me, your measure is not how much money you have in the bank but what you have done in service to others,” said Kolluri.
The Eminent Business Leader speaker series
Kolluri was the keynote speaker for the second annual Rutgers School of Business–Camden Eminent Business Leader speaker series on March 26. This year's theme, Catalysts for Transformation, was designed to highlight business leaders' ability to impact and support the communities around them.
The Eminent Business Leader speaker series was developed as part of the five-year strategic plan for the School of Business in order to provide students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to connect with business leaders.
“It was an honor to have Kris come speak to the campus community,” said Dean Monica Adya. “Our vision for this event is to have innovative, dynamic leaders share their insights on how to use the power of their business expertise to drive transformative change. I can think of no better example than Kris, whose career trajectory deeply reflects the influence business leaders can have in uplifting communities.”
Dean Monica Adya (left) and Kris Kolluri (center) with a group of students from Rutgers School of Business–Camden at the Eminent Business Leader speaker series event
KOLLURI
What I Know Now: Hall of Fame
Broadcaster, Attorney,
and Rutgers Fanatic
BY DEBBIE MEYERS
Joseph Davis says Rutgers "saved him." He is returning the favor by giving to law scholarships through a planned gift.
For Joseph “Jo Jo” Haynes Davis, the sixth time was the charm. He applied for admission to the Rutgers Law School in Camden each year from 1985 through 1991 and finally was accepted at the age of 32. Taking classes part time and working full time, he earned his law degree in 1996.
Davis’s tenacity began with his parents, staunch role models for achievement and breaking racial barriers. His father, Dr. Miles Davis Jr., was one of the country’s first Black dental surgeons and a hog farmer in southwest Illinois. His mother Josephine was one of the first Black women to be an assistant principal in the 1950s. And then there’s his half-brother, jazz legend Miles Davis.
Though Joseph was 33 years younger than the jazz icon, they shared a common musical bond—Miles as a performer and composer, Joseph as a broadcaster. While Joseph tried his hand at violin, trumpet, and piano, he didn’t like practicing, so he made his impact on music by knowing it and playing records on the air.
After more than 30 years in the broadcast industry as a DJ and journalist, he opened his own law practice 2001 in Orlando. Combining his law and broadcast expertise, he also has served as a legal, political, and social policy analyst for news franchises such as CNN and MSNBC.
In gratitude for his legal career success, Davis has included the Rutgers Law School in his estate plans to provide support for law scholarships. “Rutgers Law in Camden gave me an opportunity that no one else gave me,” he says. “Everybody who knows me knows that not only am I loyal, they know about my loyalty to Rutgers.”
Here, Davis tells his story of his determination to get into law school, his relationship with his brother, and advice for his generation.
Accepted after Six Years of Applying
I was the last guy admitted on the last day after six years. That's taking the LSAT twice a year for six years.
I called the law school admissions director, Jim Muller, from the lunchroom at work. He answers the phone and says, “Joseph, welcome to the family.” I never will forget that. From that day on, nobody will ever find a more dedicated, committed, willdefend-on-all-areas Rutgers Law School alumnus. The Rutgers experience made me what I am today. And I can tell you, respectfully, I've tried to do my best to uphold the standards of Rutgers.
I get emotional. Greg Schiano, the football coach—you know how he says, “We’re out here chopping wood”? I say that. People think I invented that. They say, “Joe, what's going on?” I say, “I'm out here chopping wood because I work for myself.”
That's the thing about Rutgers. They gave me the opportunity. They believed in me. Rutgers saved me. The day I graduated, when I walked across the stage to get my diploma, my man Dean Rayman Solomon gives me the soul grip and whispers in my ear, “May your ratings always be great and high.”
What’s It Like Being Miles Davis’s
Brother?
After my father passed, I must've been four or five, we were down at Miles’s mother’s house in East St. Louis, and he took us for a ride. He liked his cars. I recall riding fast across the Eads Bridge going to St. Louis.
After that, my mother and I were in New York City, and we went over his house. During my adolescence, I would try to see some of his concerts. During his hiatus, when he wasn’t playing, I was in college. We would talk about just sports and cooking. We really wouldn't talk about music.
He knew I was working in public broadcasting, so he knew I was playing his records for a living. In the 1980s, I was there at the Avery Fisher concert during his comeback and took some pictures. I would see him either where he lived or at concerts. I was at his last birthday party at Tavern on the Green—it was in Jet Magazine, June 1991. He was aware I had been admitted to Rutgers Law School and I heard he was pretty happy and proud about that.
Life Experience Matters
My message is for mature adults, and that is, it's never too late. People who come out of undergrad and go straight to law school, that's all they know. And that's okay, that's their life story. But that hasn't been my life story. I was more mature when I went to law school.
I've been out in the community. I've been a group home director for 15 abused and neglected Black boys in the Philadelphia area. I've been a substitute teacher in urban areas. I've worked at a convenience store. Those experiences are important when you practice law because you have a better chance to understand different types of people and situations.
If you're 75 and want to go to law school, go and matriculate. If you get your law degree in four years, as long as you have your cognition and health, you can contribute. And if nobody wants to hire you, do it yourself and develop your own business.
It's never too late. It just isn't.
Davis celebrating graduation in 1996.
Rutgers University–Camden Breaks Ground
on Transformative $60 Million Project
BY CAROLINE BROBEIL
Rutgers University–Camden commemorated a new beginning with a groundbreaking for the Cooper Street Gateway Project. This $60 million investment will transform 14 vacant historic properties and several empty lots along the 400 Block of Cooper and Lawrence Streets into a dynamic new facility for the university and the community.
“This project represents a substantial investment in the future of our institution, our students, and the people of Camden,” said Rutgers–Camden Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis to the guests and elected officials who gathered for the occasion.
“I want to thank the Rutgers–Camden Board of Directors, our colleagues, and our community partners for the work they have done to make this possible. We are lifting shovels today to officially launch this transformation of Cooper Street,” Chancellor Tillis said.
“This project represents a substantial investment in the future of our institution, our students, and the people of Camden"
CHANCELLOR ANTONIO D. TILLIS
Guests at the Cooper Street Gateway Project Groundbreaking event.
In addition to an enthusiastic crowd of faculty and staff, attendees included Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen; New Jersey Assemblymen Bill Moen and Bill Spearman; Camden County Commissioner Lou Cappelli; Camden City Councilwoman Jannette Ramos; members of the Rutgers–Camden Board of Directors, including Vice Chair Anthony Covington and Walt MacDonald; Rutgers Board of Trustees member Jim Rhodes; and community members including Shellie Mason, president of the Cooper-Grant Neighborhood Association, and Rutgers–Camden alumnus Bishop Tyrone McCombs from the Tabernacle of Faith Church, located along Cooper Street in Camden.
The project will result in a three-story facility behind the original Cooper Street properties. It will also include a common outdoor space and the renovation of Lawrence Street homes into offices and guest accommodations for visiting faculty. The new facility will create a dedicated space for units within the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, currently housed in two separate campus buildings. It will also enrich the student experience and provide a new, modern gathering space for all Rutgers and Camden community members.
Because the existing properties are located within Camden's Cooper Street Historic District, repair and retention of the properties' historic form will be paramount. All new construction will protect the integrity of historic buildings and the property setting, reflecting Rutgers–Camden's reverence for the rich history of Cooper Street and the City of Camden.
Cooper Street Gateway Project Renderings
Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis and Lou Cappelli RLAW’87, Camden County Commissioner Director.
Victor Carstarphen, Mayor, City of Camden (above); Walt MacDonald CCAS’74, Member, Rutgers Board of Trustees and Rutgers–Camden Board of Directors; Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis; and Anthony Covington, Member, Rutgers Board of Trustees and Vice Chair, Rutgers–Camden Board of Directors (below).
1,000 POINTS AND COUNTING
Scarlet Raptor guard
Rahzirah Blocker celebrates historic milestone
BY CHRISTINA LYNN
Spectators cheering on the men’s and women’s basketball teams at the Scarlet Raptor Rally witnessed history in the making. The Rutgers–Athletic and Fitness Center grew electric when, in the women’s game against The College of New Jersey, guard Rahzirah Blocker shot a three-pointer and reached 1,000 career points. With the fourth-quarter bucket, Blocker became just the 16th player in the history of the Scarlet Raptors women’s basketball program to accomplish the feat.
The timing could not have been better for Blocker, who celebrated her achievement with over 300 members of the university community at the doubleheader event, which featured free food, prizes, student performances, and other festivities. “The stars aligned,” Blocker said. “There were so many people there, including my family, to embrace and share the moment. The shooting guard also acknowledged a sigh of relief, realizing the work she had put in behind the scenes and on the court had landed her in the Rutgers University–Camden history books.
After she earned an associate degree in physics engineering, Blocker sought to transfer to a fouryear school that offered both STEM and social science programs that piqued her interests. She found these at Rutgers–Camden, where she was accepted into the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Business. Blocker majored in computer science, taking courses like Programming Fundamentals, which furthered a love of computer programming and language learning she has held since high school. Blocker graduated with a degree in computer science in 2023 and is now pursuing a second degree in philosophy, which stems from a longstanding interest in ancient thinkers and texts.
Blocker did not play at community college and promoted her athletic talents in order to catch the interest of the basketball team. At the time, Blocker played in a league and created highlight reels of her play. She sent one to former Scarlet Raptors coach Annette Reiter, who responded.
“We exchanged messages, and she got me here to visit,” Blocker said. “Pretty much since the visit, I thought, ‘Yes, this is where I want to be.’ That's why I'm here.”
The student-athlete has played basketball since the age of 10 and, more than ever, maintains a true devotion to the sport.
“In the beginning, it was a love/hate relationship,” Blocker said. “But now it's grown into something that I can't go a day without, whether it be playing, watching it, and thinking about it—it's just always on my mind,” she said. Blocker hopes to play international professional basketball after her anticipated graduation with a second degree in May 2025.
“I'm going to give everything I’ve got to that. If that
not
going to happen,
I
were
do plan on staying in the basketball realm, whether it be coaching or just helping out.”
RAHZIRAH BLOCKER
BLOCKER
Photo courtesy of Nikkita Hovell
Blocker drives to the basket (above), alongside her family, celebrates her 1,000 point milestone (below).
From Seasoning to Souffles: The Science of Cooking
Rutgers–Camden
BY CAROLINE BROBEIL
On a recent spring afternoon in the Rutgers University–Camden teaching kitchen, students learned about phase changes using egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar. Hunter King, assistant professor of physics, challenged the students to consider how these ingredients would transform from a liquid and two solids into light, fluffy foam.
“When you whip the egg whites, you denature the proteins with agitation; in other words, you break apart the protein molecules of the egg whites while adding air bubbles, a gas,” said King. He added that sugar is needed to keep the bubbles stable, and cream of tartar, which is acidic, keeps the sugar from crystallizing.
The “meringue challenge” is just one way King engages his class. The Physics of Cooking, offered to students in the Honors College, is an introductory exploration of science through the lens of food and the art of cooking. Through simple ingredients and techniques, students learn the basic elements of material science.
"I use the kitchen and cooking to introduce concepts students may think they have no interest in,"
said King. “They
may not be drawn to physics, but everyone is interested in food."
He uses food's common appeal to challenge students to become more curious about the world around them and notice how they interact with raw materials, especially the ones in their refrigerators.
The class was inspired by a conversation King had with a student a few years ago about the parallels between cooking and polymer physics, the study of the interaction of large molecules linked together chemically.
“Cooking is a very useful window into polymer physics because when you're cooking, you are dealing with basic polymeric materials, like proteins and starches, and how they interact when you combine materials or introduce a temperature change,” said King.
For Kimberly Lugo, a junior in the Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden, the opportunity to learn physics through this novel and unexpected approach was exactly what drew her to enroll in the class.
“Every class session surprises me with the underlying reason behind various cooking reactions,” said Lugo. “Before this class, I didn’t consider the mechanisms behind cooking or the science behind it. This class has helped me have a scientific understanding in a way I wouldn't have otherwise.”
King hopes staple ingredients like sugar and salt, and basic actions like heating and mixing, inspire a profound shift in students’ thinking as they progress through the course material. From understanding how gluten networks are created from the simple act of kneading flour and water, to making mayonnaise, a solid, from the three liquids of egg yolk, oil, and vinegar, the goal is to connect with science in a practical and meaningful way.
“There is value in recognizing the limitations of how one might normally think,” King said. “I hope that by stepping beyond their existing knowledge, my students can gain a more rigorous, scientific approach to interacting with the world.”
professor demonstrates introductory principles of physics in university test kitchen.
Hunter King, assistant professor of physics, alongside two students.
Rutgers Engages in Ghana and Nigeria
BY KATHRYN ROSKO
Rutgers University–Camden
Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis traveled to Ghana and Nigeria in January to explore ways for the university to engage more deeply in the region through student and faculty exchanges and collaborative partnerships. He was accompanied by Senior Vice Chancellor Jimmy Jung on the visit and, in Nigeria, joined by Rutgers Global Associate Director Shakirat Bola Ibraheem.
In Ghana, Tillis and Jung met with the University of Ghana, the Ambassador at the US Embassy in Ghana, the EducationUSA team, and the American Chamber of Commerce. They also had meetings with Chancellor Mary Chinery-Heese of the University of Ghana, and the Minister of Education in Ghana. The delegation visited area high schools to share about the opportunities available at Rutgers University.
In Nigeria, the delegation met with the US Consulate in Lagos, the team at EducationUSA, and the Director of Public Affairs. In addition, they had meetings with a group at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), including Vice Chancellor Professor Folasade T. Ogunsola, as well as Deputy Vice Chancellors in the areas of development services, management services, and academics and research. Chancellor Tillis was especially interested in pursuing collaboration and exchange in languages study at UNILAG, which hosts a large number of international students.
The team from Rutgers also met with the Minister of Education Dr. Yusuf Sununu and the Director of University Education Rakiya Gambo Ilyasu in Abuja. They then visited the University of Ibadan (UI) and met with Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academics Aderonke Baiyeroju and Deputy Vice President for Administrative Services Professor Peter Olapegba, as well as with the Director of Research Management.
Chancellor Tillis expressed his interest in collaborating with UI on both student and faculty exchanges and plans to make use of the universitywide Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that Rutgers and UI are in the process of renewing.
Finally, the Rutgers team reconnected with His Royal Majesty Saka Adelola Matemilola, king of the Owu Kingdom, with whom they met last May when he visited Rutgers University with former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and a delegation of education leaders from Nigeria.
As a result of the meetings, there are new opportunities for study abroad programs in the region, and Executive Director of Study Abroad Dan Waite is looking forward to setting up new programs at the University of Ghana. In the next few weeks, Rutgers University–Camden professor Keith Green will be taking a group of students to University of Ghana.
“We were so glad to have the opportunity to deepen our relationships with our colleagues and peers in Ghana and Nigeria, particularly
our partners at the University of
Ghana
and
University of Ibadan,” said Eric Garfunkel, Vice President for Global Affairs. “There are so many ways we look forward to further engaging in this region.”
Remarking on the trip, Chancellor Tillis noted, “The Rutgers–Camden campus hosts numerous global partnerships and a thriving population of diverse international students. It was a privilege to meet with educational leaders in Ghana and Nigeria in order to better serve students from these countries—a population that will grow in the years ahead as we expand partnerships abroad. The visit also presented the opportunity for further collaboration through Rutgers Global. We are honored to join Rutgers Global in collaboration with a few of the finest educational institutions in Ghana and Nigeria to provide students from these two countries a worldclass education, and to foster international opportunities for faculty.”
99-Year-Old WWII Veteran Shares
War Stories with Rutgers–Camden
BY CHRISTINA LYNN
Jake Ruser recounted firsthand experiences as
part of veteran speaker series
Rutgers University in Camden’s Office of Military & Veterans Affairs hosted Private First Class Jake Ruser as part of its second annual speaker series, which seeks to educate civilians on military turning points in history through the lens of veterans who lived through those experiences.
Ruser, 99, a native of Conshohocken, Pa., served with the 4th Infantry Division as a combat medic, picking up the wounded, evacuating them to aid stations, and treating them in such conflicts as the Battle of the Bulge. With vivid clarity, Ruser recounted his time in the war, starting from his arrival at the epicenter of battle: Utah Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
He described the euphoria of his division liberating Paris a few months later. “You would never believe there was a war going on. We went in by motorcade, and people were all over our trucks; we could barely move,” Ruser said. “They brought out their champagne and everything. It was a big celebration.”
Ruser (right) with Rutgers–Camden Director of Veterans Affairs Fred Davis
Ruser also detailed his time in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest in Germany, which he said was one of the worst battles fought in the European theater of operations. In November 1944, the American front was met with heavy casualties. “You’re wondering, how could this happen?’” Ruser said.
Ruser explained that with so many losses, the U.S. and German forces decided to halt fighting and called two truces. “The Americans and Germans worked together to gather the dead, and we were able to bring the American casualties back to the aid station,” he said.
Soon after, Ruser’s unit was dispatched to the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg in what became the Battle of the Bulge. He described a few close calls, including when his team nearly drove into enemy lines and were mistaken for Germans while retrieving mail. “We were stopped at a checkpoint because there were some Germans who were supposed to be dropped behind our line at the start of the battle to sabotage our operation and disrupt our communication,” Ruser said. “The number on our vehicle matched one of the numbers they were looking for. We were two hours late, but everyone was just glad we got back safely.”
After his military service, Ruser attended business school, beginning a successful career in accounting and later working for IBM. Last year, Ruser served as honorary co-grand marshal of the Philadelphia Veterans Day Parade along with friend and fellow member of the Delaware Valley Battle of the Bulge Association, Cpl. Benjamin Berry.
The Military & Veterans Affairs speaker series was made possible through the Rutgers–Camden Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy Innovation Grant Program. Future Office of Military & Veterans Affairs speaker series events will include sessions on the Vietnam War, the Global War on Terrorism, and the Tuskegee Airmen.
Rutgers–Camden Recognized for Exemplary Community Engagement
Rutgers–Camden and Atlantic Cape Community College Formalize New Pathways to Student Success
Rutgers University–Camden and Atlantic Cape Community College signed a premier partnership agreement to benefit students pursuing fouryear degrees.
Rutgers–Camden is honored to have received the 2024 Richard Guarasci Award for Institutional Transformation from Campus Compact, the largest and oldest higher education association dedicated to community and civic engagement. The university is also among 40 U.S. institutions of higher learning that received the 2024 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.
Rutgers University–Camden Celebrates
Joyous, Jam-Packed Commencement
Week
The 1,676 graduates who earned degrees from Rutgers University–Camden during the 2023-24 academic year flocked to Freedom Mortgage Pavilion with their families, mentors, and friends throughout Commencement week to enjoy a varied slate of ceremonies and activities. Walking across a stage that has been graced by music legends like Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana, and Bruno Mars, Class of 2024 graduates from the university’s four colleges and schools were the stars of the moment, rejoicing in their status as the newest Rutgers–Camden alumni and commemorating the start of their careers in science, art, business, nursing, law, and many other fields.
While most graduates attended school-specific ceremonies alongside their classmates, both the Rutgers–Camden and Graduate School Commencement, along with a Graduation Picnic immediately following the ceremony, were open to all graduates and their guests, giving the entire university community a chance to come together in recognition of a life-changing week.
Partnership Creates New Opportunities for Students in Health-Related Fields
BY CAROLINE BROBEIL
Nearly 50 guests gathered at the Samaritan Center in Voorhees, N.J., to see Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis of Rutgers University–Camden and Samaritan President and CEO Phillip W. Heath sign a memorandum of understanding that will expand clinical rotations for Rutgers–Camden students in nursing, social work, and psychology. This partnership will provide hands-on palliative medicine training alongside interdisciplinary Samaritan teams in home care settings and Samaritan’s two inpatient units.
“The newly formalized partnership between Rutgers–Camden and Samaritan will advance our many shared goals in research and community health,” Chancellor Tillis said. “I am grateful that our faculty, staff, and students will have the chance to work alongside Samaritan’s health care professionals as we serve those in need in Camden County and throughout South Jersey.”
Under the new agreement, Rutgers–Camden students, faculty, and staff will help expand Samaritan’s medical services, which include primary care, palliative medicine, social connections, hospice care, and grief support. This partnership will also increase access to home-based healthcare services for communities of color and other underserved populations in Camden City and surrounding areas within Camden, Burlington, and Gloucester Counties.
“We are extremely proud to establish our innovative premier partnership with Rutgers University–Camden, the first of its kind for both of our organizations,” Heath said.
"Today represents an important milestone for Chancellor Tillis and me, as our shared vision is codified and we bring together colleagues and key stakeholders to advance the practice of palliative medicine in Camden and the [South Jersey] region."
Distinguished guests at the celebratory event included the Honorable Melinda Kane and the Honorable Al Dyer, both members of the Camden County Board of Commissioners; Susan Elizabeth Lehrman, a member of Samaritan’s board of directors; Mary Ann Boccolini, former president and CEO of Samaritan; Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden Dean Donna Nickitas; and Nyeema Watson, Rutgers–Camden senior vice chancellor for strategy, diversity and community engagement, who is also a member of the Samaritan board.
By bridging the gap between research and education to practical, handson caregiving at the patient level, this collaboration will improve patient outcomes and provide Rutgers–Camden students with new, practical opportunities to build upon the education they receive on campus.
In Case You Missed It
This past holiday season, Rutgers–Camden did a full marketing “takeover” of Philadelphia's iconic 30th Street Station. Keep your eye out for what is to come during the 2024 holiday season.
A U.S. News & World Report Top University
Rutgers University–Camden
303 Cooper Street Camden, NJ 08102-1519
Ranked #49 in U.S. News & World Report’s list of Best Public Colleges and Universities, Rutgers University–Camden is a diverse, researchintensive campus of approximately 6,100 students at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels and more than 1,000 faculty and staff members. Located in Camden, N.J., directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, the university is uniquely situated to serve a tightknit local community while achieving global reach. A U.S. Department of Education-designated Minority Serving Institution, Rutgers–Camden is regarded as a national model for civically engaged urban universities. Recently, Rutgers–Camden earned Carnegie classification as an R2 research university due to a high volume of internationally recognized research, creative output, and scholarly activity.
