Features

Each year, the Honors College recognizes students who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to service—an integral part of our mission. Please join us in congratulating this year’s outstanding Changemaker Award recipients, who have served in their communities in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and beyond:

Aasha Shaik

Ankita Kodali began Rutgers Business School-New Brunswick as a shy student who sat in the back of the room and listened quietly when she joined a campus organization.

By the second half of her sophomore year, she had served in one or two leadership positions in small student groups and accepted the role of president for the Rutgers Business School Innovation Committee (RBSIC), which works closely with the Office of Career Management. By the end of her senior year, she would be president of two other student groups.

A geology major spent summer in Houston focusing on Red Planet

Sophie Benaroya had long dreamed of working at NASA.

“I’ve been interested in planetary science since I was a kid,” said Benaroya, a School of Arts and Sciences and Rutgers Honors College senior at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. “I just didn’t think NASA was an option.”

Each year, the Honors College recognizes students who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to service—an integral part of our mission. Please join us in congratulating and thanking this year’s outstanding Changemaker Award recipients, who have served in their communities in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and beyond:

Caroline Kratka

As in past years, first-year Honors College students created more than 50 social innovation projects this fall to help improve the lives of others. As they demonstrated our mission—Curiosity. Knowledge. Purpose.—through their projects, they also learned to work together to refine, articulate, and present their ideas in a compelling and persuasive manner. 

Every semester, first-year Honors College students join together in the interdisciplinary mission course, the Forum. With a strong focus on critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, creativity, and public speaking, the Forum provides first-year students an opportunity to develop invaluable skills while working with their peers from a variety of academic backgrounds. By focusing on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, students tackle real-world issues with business and technology applications.