A father and daughter, a future judge, a budding documentarian, and more: Meet some members of the Rutgers-Newark Class of 2008
During the week of May 19, some 2,400 graduates will march off the Rutgers University campus in Newark, in a series of six commencement ceremonies. Not every graduate will garner special awards or honors, but each one deserves kudos for perseverance and hard work. Here are a few whose personal stories make them stand out from their peers.
CHANGING A COMMUNITY ONE CHILD AT A TIME
R. Emily Rodriguez, Rutgers School of Law-Newark, J.D., Jersey City, N.J.
Ceremony: May 23, 10 a.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, One Center St., Newark
As you listen to Emily Rodriguez talk about her parents, and how they imparted in their children the need to give back to their community, and explain that she herself was helped by opportunities placed her way, it’s no surprise to hear her proclaim, “I want to impact the community and effect change, not make money as a lawyer.”
It’s also no surprise that she’s already started to do that, as co-founder of the Rutgers Law School-Newark’s Street Law program. The program sends Rutgers law students to teach high school students about the legal system, while its mentoring project pairs at-risk youth with law school mentors. She also organized a “Pro Bono Day” that involved 130 students and faculty in community projects, such as working in soup kitchens and with Habitat for Humanity. To her law school was far more than classes; it was opportunities for hands-on involvement and learning through Street Law and similar community programs.
Emily’s ultimate goal is to be a family court judge, where she can intervene in the lives of young people “in hopes of straightening them out before it’s too late.” Her philosophy is simple: “The way to change a community is through its children.” She also hopes seeing a woman of color on the bench, or as a lawyer, will present a positive role model for at-risk youth and the realization that there is a way out and a chance to move up.
“THERE’S ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW TO LEARN”
Ronald Sverdlove, Graduate School-Newark, Ph.D., Princeton, N.J.
Ceremony: May 22, 2 p.m., Golden Dome Athletic Center, 42 Warren St., Newark
Ronald Sverdlove has a decision to make before May 22: Should he don a cap and gown and participate in commencement ceremonies—or should he pick up his French horn and perform at commencement, as he has for at the last several years as part of Central Jersey Wind Ensemble? Right now Ron’s leaning toward marching for the May 22 ceremony, where he will receive his degree in finance, and playing at the five others on the Newark campus. “Pomp and Circumstance” is a familiar tune for Ron both as a performer and a holder of several degrees, including another Ph.D., in mathematics.
Ron’s professional life, like his academic resume, reflects a broad range of talents and interests: He spent several years teaching math before beginning a 20-year private sector career in software development for television picture tubes. After a layoff, he considered becoming a financial software developer, then returned to teaching, at the college level. Along the way he earned a master’s in music and the Ph.D., married a musician with a challenging schedule, and learned to balance career, education, and the demands of family.
Ron finds that his scientific and mathematical training and work experience is a perfect fit for teaching financial subjects, especially when it comes to the complicated mathematical models used to determine pricing of financial products. Ron firmly believes there is “always something new to learn” and that no one is ever too old to learn, a philosophy he hopes he has passed along to his two daughters by his example of lifelong learning.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER
Francisco Rivera, Newark College of Arts and Sciences, BA, Jersey City, NJ
Ceremony: May 20, 2 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, One Center St., Newark
Melissa Rivera, Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration, MPA, Jersey City, NJ
Ceremony: May 22, 2 p.m., Golden Dome Athletic Center, 42 Warren St., Newark
Francisco Rivera always instilled in his children that education was the key to improving one’s way of life. So, in 1970, after arriving in New Jersey from Puerto Rico in 1970, he enrolled in classes at Rutgers-Newark, hoping to get a teaching degree. But fate intervened a few years later, and he found himself the single father of two young daughters. So he put his education on hold to raise them – but never lost sight of his dream of a college degree.
Fast forward to today, and now there are two Riveras on the student roster at Rutgers-Newark – Francisco and his daughter Melissa. Francisco is an underclassman, finally finishing up his degree, while daughter Melissa is pursuing her graduate degree in public administration. Both work fulltime while taking coursework. They share no classes – although they occasionally lunch together — but they share the dream of better lives through education, the belief ingrained in Melissa by her father. Father and daughter will both graduate in May 2008, and each plans to attend the other’s commencement ceremonies.
At the present moment, Francisco is not sure if he will ever pursue a teaching career, due to the nearly three-decades-long delay in getting his degree. For now, he will continue working as both a home inspector and a sports commentator for the SAP channel, where he calls New York Yankees games in Spanish on both radio and TV.
Melissa started on her bachelor’s degree at Rutgers-Newark in 1997, and in 2001 began working in what was then the public administration department (now the School of Public Affairs and Administration). She also finds time to serve on the campus Diversity Committee and co-chairs the Latino/a Caucus.
Like her father before her, Melissa teaches her children by example, impressing upon them the value of continuous learning. She also wants them to see the fruits of their mom’s and grandfather’s labors, so they will miss two afternoons of school to cheer first for their grandfather, on May 20, and then again for their mom on May 22.
TRADING NUMBERS FOR WORDS
Mary Jones, Graduate School-Newark, MA, New York City, N.Y.
Ceremony: May 22, 2 p.m., Golden Dome Athletic Center, 42 Warren St., Newark
Words were an essential part of Mary Jones’ life for years, and her poetry and fiction-writing helped her survive an unstable and uncertain childhood and teen years in Texas. She even had some of her writings published while she was an undergraduate student. But when the demands of that life left the Native American woman too dispirited and uninspired to write, she abandoned words.
Eventually Mary moved to Manhattan, where she worked as a futures trader and enrolled in Rutgers, at the urging of a respected mentor who was a Rutgers alumna. Over the two years of working toward her master’s through the Writing Program, Mary regained her literary voice and her confidence. “Everyone is so approachable and so supportive; I was able talk to anyone about anything, anytime I needed.” A Ralph Bunche scholarship provided monetary support, enabling her to complete her return to the world of words. Now she’s come full circle; she’s turned her back on the stresses of financial trades and is looking forward to a future in publishing and an eventual return to Texas and her family.
“I was raised with the idea of studying what I love, regardless of whether it pays off financially,” Mary reflects. But these days, Mary gives that philosophy a down-to-earth bit of editing. “Do what you love for the first few years, then figure out a way to make your love into something practical, something that also will support you.” For her, publishing is the way to indulge her love of literature while paying the bills.
A MAN OF MANY HATS
Tim Johnson, Rutgers School of Law-Newark, J.D., Yardley, PA.
Ceremony: May 23, 10 a.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, One Center St., Newark
As director of housing and residence life for the Newark campus, Tim Johnson spent countless hours in the planning of a13-story residence hall that is home to 600 residents, and even more hours overseeing the construction. The end result, University Square, is impressive, but also as impressive is what else Johnson was doing at the time: Being responsible for all resident students and all of the campus residence halls, and going to law school at night. Not to mention commuting to his residence in Yardley, PA., on weekends, singing and acting in community theater productions, and co-founding an Internet-based company that provides on-line services for universities.
Why would someone so involved in the 24/7 world of residence life spend four years earning a law degree? For Tim, law is another way to make a difference in people’s lives, something he has been striving to do his whole life. He originally planned to do it by teaching, but in college he worked at a job in residence life and found a different route to impact students. “You see students at their best and at their worst,” sharing their joys over good news and helping them through family crises and academic problems, Tim notes.
The job gets “pretty intense,” as did his coursework, and Tim found escape from those stresses on the stage, performing in musical theater. “You have to be so focused on the stage that you forget what else is happening.”
His most immediate plan for the future: “to get my life back” and enjoy some class-free time. He also plans to put his new legal expertise to work in his housing responsibilities, which involve issues such as student rights, liability, contracts, and judicial processes.
AN ABUNDANCE OF OPPORTUNITIES AND CHOICES
Robin Laverne Wilson, Newark College of Arts and Sciences (Honors College), BA, Jersey City, N.J. and Converse, TX.
Ceremony: May 20, 2 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, One Center St., Newark
Robin Laverne Wilson still hasn’t decided what she wants to be when she grows up, but at least she’s narrowed down her choices. “I want to be an artist who handles business, vs. a business woman who is artistic. I want to produce media.” Robin, who describes herself as a “Texan by geography, a New Yorker by heart,” started college in 1991 back in Texas, trying her hand at a broad swath of majors and courses, including writing, photography, acting, film, journalism, and fine arts. She worked in a peace and justice center, marrying art and social justice, and also acted in commercials and training films.
Lured by the bright lights of the big city, she came to New York and at the recommendation of a relative, looked into Rutgers-Newark and liked what she saw. As an interdisciplinary major, she mixed media studies and management courses, interned at VH1, the New York Pops Symphony Orchestra, and New Line Cinema, and during a break from classes was an artist in residence at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. Ever the activist, Robin has assisted on filming a documentary about homeless war veterans with Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, director/producer of “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” and “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism.” For her Honors College thesis project, Robin started a production company to create several film projects.
Why is Robin so attracted to such a broad range of highly creative fields? She likens herself to a dragonfly, the creature she considers her spirit guide, noting the dragonfly is “non-linear – it darts all over. And it is very assertive at going after what it wants.”
COMPASSION + ORGANIZATION = A WINNING COMBINATION
Jonathan Lomotey, College of Nursing, BS, Newark N.J.
Ceremony: May 22, 10 a.m., Golden Dome Athletic Center, 42 Warren St., Newark
Jonathan Lomotey’s natural compassion guarantees he will be a caring nurse, but in the meantime it has been a boon for classmates to whom he has become an unofficial mentor. Classmates often seek him out when they are discouraged or having a bad day, Jonathan admits. When they do, he shares his personal philosophy: “I tell them, ‘Aim at the sun and land on the moon.’”
Jonathan was studying to be a lab technician in his native Ghana when he decided he wanted a career that would allow him to interact with patients rather than lab samples. He came to the U.S. in 2001 intent on becoming a nurse, attending Essex County College before transferring to the Rutgers College of Nursing in 2005. With the support of his wife, Mercy, he has juggled coursework, labs, an externship, and a job, while managing to make the dean’s list, receive several academic excellence awards and two scholarships; he also was inducted into both Sigma Theta Tau (the international honor society for nursing) and the Golden Key International Honor Society. “I’m a very organized person,” he observes. Not all of his lessons have come from textbooks; his externship in the emergency room at East Orange General Hospital taught him that patient deaths are also part of nursing, as is learning to comfort their families. “You learn to be strong for the families.” Adjusting to life in America, and going from a two-year-school to a four-year, also was an education in itself, though one made easier by the welcoming atmosphere and cultural diversity he found at Rutgers-Newark. Jonathan intends to pursue a master’s degree after working in an intensive care unit.
HITTING HIGH NOTES IN HIS CAREER CHANGE
Bertrand Okpokwasili, Rutgers School of Law-Newark, J.D., Jersey City, N.J.
Ceremony: May 23, 10 a.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, One Center St., Newark
Bertrand Okpokwasili could have an unfair advantage over opposing lawyers in court if he opted to sing his arguments. Bertrand is a founder of The House Jacks of San Francisco, a “rock band without instruments,” and sang bass with the a cappella group for several years, touring overseas and releasing recordings.
Music – both performing it and writing it — is only one of many interests that Bert has followed. He loves writing both fiction and non-fiction, and also worked as a server engineer in the computer field, and of course, there’s his passion for the law, specifically for litigation. As far as Bert is concerned, all of those interests fit together and work together. “Writing, whether it’s music, fiction or a brief, is communicating,” Bert explains. “You have to be able to communicate effectively in the court room and with your clients, and to make an impact.”
Bert’s parents emigrated from West Africa and he was born in New York. His parents and siblings include doctors, an engineer and an actress, making him the first to follow a law career. Bert has been active on campus, serving as president of the Student Bar Association and spearheading a voter registration drive that encompassed Rutgers, Seton Hall Law School and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The recipient of the Trial Attorneys of New Jersey Scholarship, he is interning with an international law firm in Newark, where he is being exposed to all aspects of trial work. Bert will work as a law clerk in the metropolitan area after graduating.
ANOTHER DECADE, ANOTHER CAREER PATH
Carol Ellison, Graduate School-Newark, MA, Secaucus
Ceremony: May 22, 2 p.m., Golden Dome Athletic Center, 42 Warren St., Newark
From journalism, to a technical writing career in the early days of home computing and the web, to appearing on “Oprah” and in other media to discuss the internet, to dispensing advice on remodeling colonial homes, Carol Ellison’s career has spanned many disciplines and broken new ground in at least one. But her latest career, teaching part-time, broke new ground for Carol.
Carol’s took an indirect route into the computer world; in the 1970s, she was an education reporter at The Cincinnati Post, while her husband became involved in personal computing. Through him she acquired enough knowledge to become the paper’s “PC guru,” and eventually Carol found herself writing for PC Magazine, as well as other high tech/computing magazines, reporting about educational technology, in the earliest stages of the PC revolution, through the 1990s.
Carol’s foray into teaching was more direct; she began the MA program here with the goal of teaching. “I’ve had a lot of helpful mentors along the way in my career, and I wanted to fill that role for other people,” she relates. She is now finishing up her fifth semester as an instructor at Rutgers-Newark, and eventually would like to teach full-time.
She explains, “Teaching is my latest passion, the next phase of this crazy career of mine.” In the meantime, she is a freelance technical writer, in business with her husband, and they also write and illustrate articles on remodeling colonial homes.
INSPIRED AND INSPIRING
Gary Martinez, Newark College of Arts and Sciences, BS, Fairview, N.J.
Ceremony: May 20, 2 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, One Center St., Newark
Gary Martinez credits his mother’s encouragement and support for his academic accomplishments. But Gary also gave his mother an academic boost – and he would like to give her another. “After I started at Rutgers-Newark, my mom saw me working and studying and decided that she wanted to go to school too, to better herself. So she enrolled in a special program to became a medical assistant.” In an appropriate bit of role reversal, Gary helped his mom with her studies by quizzing her and reviewing materials and terminologies. She completed the program, and now is considering another career change, perhaps in detective work. “I would like her to follow her dream, and once I graduate, I can help support her and encourage her, he way she did for me,” he says.
Being supportive and helping people seems to be genetically embedded within Gary’s persona. He started college as a biology major, but soon decided the somewhat solitary life of a researcher was not for him and switched to sociology. “I’m too people-oriented,” he explains. Gary, who participated in EOF program at Rutgers after graduating high school, now volunteers for the same program that he is a product of, helping to ease students’ transition into college life. “It’s good for the students to get advice and help from someone who’s done it before.”
Gary co-founded EOF PRIDE (Equal Opportunity Fund Pursuing Rewards In Diversity and Education) and served a term as president, organizing fundraisers and social networking activities. He also tutored through the Academic Foundation Center, focusing on a local charter school, North Star Academy. Gary participates as an active member of Rutgers’ Hispanic student organization, LUNA; coaches basketball for a church in West New York; and is a youth leader in his church.
Gary has no set future plans, but is considering a career in social work or counseling. “As long as I’m helping someone I’m comfortable.”
