Student Spotlight

Paolo Arante: Why I Give

For second-year Honors College (HC) student Paolo Arante, service provides the opportunity to engage in community partnership and empower a community to give back. Arante is a marketing major and dance minor who enjoys working with and supporting others through extracurricular activities, including serving as the service lead on the HC Serves Leadership Team.

Justin Najimian: Why I Give

Justin with his friends during Rutgers Dance Marathon

Second-year Honors College student Justin Najimian is no stranger to service and giving back. According to Najimian, who majors in public health and minors in Spanish and health & society, service has played a monumental role in his experiences at the HC and beyond.

"As long as I can remember, service has been a constant in my life,” said Najimian.

The Balance Between Science and Humanism in Medicine

Hannah Calvelli serving as a leader on the HC Student Wellness Committee

Hannah Calvelli competing on the RU Rock Climbing Team

Hannah Calvelli ('20, SAS/HC) has been working in a research lab since her freshman year, studying nanotherapeutics for immune modulation in Parkinson's Disease. In addition to contributing to several publications, she conducted research at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Strokes where she received an Exceptional Summer Student Award. She will be attending medical school next year.

Aryeh Iosif: Why I Give

Aryeh Iosif during a Welcome Days Service Event

Aryeh during his engagement with Broadway Cares

For Aryeh Iosif, giving is an opportunity to be a catalyst for positive change. His journey began in high school with a volunteer opportunity to help children in long-term care. This experience prompted him to continue serving through the Honors College, “Where else could you just walk two minutes and have opportunities to serve your community? ...These small service events at the Honors College were a huge catalyst for me in getting involved further in service.”

Exquisite Sound

Stephanie Fritz ('20, MGSA/HC) is ready for Yale this fall. Through sheer talent and determination, she built her skills independently most of her life. When she arrived at Mason Gross School of the Arts, she set herself on a path to learn all she could from her teacher to build her technical skills. She learned something more: Through preparation of her own part and knowledge of the parts of her fellow musicians, she is participating in sensitive, on-the-spot collaboration and actively inspiring each other’s next steps.

An Interdisciplinary View on Opportunity

Amol Lotia with other members of the Honors College Alumni Society Senior Board of Directors

Amol Lotia ('20, SOE/RBS/HC) began his career at Rutgers as an engineering student aiming to expand his analytical skillset and problem-solving abilities, but his interest in business remained central too. Driven by both of his passions, he has a dual degree in economics and industrial and systems engineering. With his experience as assistant director of the prestigious Road to Wall Street program and past internship at Credit Suisse, Amol is prepared for his full time position there in the Financial Sponsors Group.

Curiosity, Knowledge, and Purpose in Action

Sarah with other Sulis team members (right)

Sarah during her TEDxRutgers talk at the 2020 Conference

Sarah Pomeranz ('20, RBS/HC/DRC) has dedicated her time at Rutgers to developing her leadership and entrepreneurship skills, and expanding her knowledge of the world, all to focus on social justice. Following graduation, she'll begin her year as a John Lewis Fellow through the prestigious Humanity in Action Fellowship with a full-time position this fall as a strategy consultant at Accenture in Washington, DC.

“Pa’lante,” Keep Moving Forward: Ezekiel Medina on Wellness, Culture, & Community

Ezekiel Medina, Rutgers Future Scholars Program

For Ezekiel Medina (’20, SAS/Bloustein/HC), the power of community is at the heart of all he’s experienced in college. A double major in public health and Latino and Caribbean studies, Ezekiel has fostered student wellness and cultural connections, all while promoting awareness of social justice issues with a focus on equitable healthcare and education systems for vulnerable populations. Recently named a Fulbright Scholar, Ezekiel will be an English teaching assistant at a university in Argentina after graduation.

Honors College Graduate Makes a Difference Through Commitment to Social Justice

Mansi speaking during the Anita Datar Lecture on Women's Global Health

Mansi presenting during Rutgers Figs seminar

Mansi Shah’s home in New Jersey is only about 20 miles from Rikers Island. While the distance between a New Jersey suburb and New York City’s main jail complex might seem insurmountable, the Rutgers Honor College graduating senior has devoted much of her time bridging the gap between her experience as a high-achieving honors student and the lives of the incarcerated.

Rutgers' Second Ertegun Scholar Goes Medieval

Jonas Tai (SAS/HC 20') is among an exclusive group of scholars worldwide to be accepted into what is formally known as the Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Graduate Scholarship Programme in the Humanities.

Tai, pictured in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, will continue his research, which focuses on historical changes that have faced generations at Oxford.

When COVID-19 caused universities nationwide to shift the spring semester online and send most students living in on-campus housing home for the semester, School of Arts and Sciences senior Jonas Tai packed up his apartment at The Yard on College Avenue and got on a plane to Hong Kong, fairly certain that he had just said goodbye to New Jersey and life at Rutgers as he knew it.

But Tai, who majored in classics, ancient history and medieval studies and will graduate this month with a bachelor of arts degree, has big plans for the next steps in his academic career.

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