2018-2019 Fellows
Melanie Arroyave, School of Arts & Sciences ‘20, is a Labor Studies & Employment Relations major with a minor in Public Health and has been on Dean’s list since she transferred to Rutgers from American University. While in Washington D.C. she interned for U.S. Congressman Albio Sires (NJ-8). At Rutgers she is a member of Tau Sigma National Honor Society, National Society of Collegiate Scholars and Douglas Residential College. Over the 2017-2018 winter break she externed at University of Pennsylvania Law School. During her spring semester she was accepted to the U.S. Coast Guard College Pre-Commissioning Initiative (CSPI), Rutgers Institute of Women’s Leadership (IWL) Scholars Certificate Program, and Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. After evaluating her options, Arroyave decided to pursue both the CSPI program and IWL Scholars Certificate Program. Over this summer the CSPI program required Melanie to undergo 8 weeks of Basic Training instruction at United States Coast Guard Training Center Cape May. Over the summer, Melanie was designated as a Hispanic Fund Scholarship scholar. Now, Melanie is proud to be serving her country as an active-duty member of the U.S. Coast Guard, where she is stationed both at Rutgers University and Recruiting Office Newark. Melanie’s primary interests are in Labor and Health Policy with a focus on health disparities among Medicare beneficiaries, and unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board. After graduating she will be sent to Coast Guard Officer Candidate School. Once an officer she plans to earn her JD degree, and one day serve her country as a Judge Advocate General.
- Research Topic: Assessing the Impact of Domestic Workers’Legislation
Lior Ben-Zvi is in her junior year, studying in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program. She is majoring in French and Middle Eastern Studies, with a minor in International Relations. Lior has been on the Dean's List for every semester, and has just returned from a semester abroad in Paris, studying French culture and Arabic at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University. Last year, Lior worked as a Hebrew tutor at a Rutgers Learning Center, this year she looks forward to being an International Exchange Student Buddy, providing guidance to new students studying abroad in Rutgers. Outside of school, Lior has been in various leadership roles in the Hashomer Hatzair movement, most recently with the title of Educational Director, and this year will be working as the program coordinator. In her spare time, Lior enjoys playing in the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, traveling with her family, and eating burritos- she looks forward to the opportunities this fellowship will provide for her.
Samantha Chen is a student in the Honors College majoring in Biological Sciences and minoring in Women’s and Gender Studies and Political Science in School of Arts and Sciences. She is a recipient of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and has spent the past two summers conducting research on neurodegenerative diseases. Despite her background in science, Sam is also extremely interested in law and politics and was an intern for the Morris County Democratic Committee where she has worked on the 2018 congressional campaigns for Mikie Sherrill and Tom Malinowski. At Rutgers, Sam is currently the President of the Honors College Student Advisory Board which serves to advocate for the student body, facilitate collaboration between students and faculty, and shape the culture at the Honors College. She is also cofounder of the Honors College Book Club and has participated on an Honors Program study abroad trip to South Africa where she studied activism during the apartheid era. Sam hopes to attend law school in the future and work towards bridging the gap between science and law.
- Research Topic: Truth, Reconciliation, and the #MeToo Movement
Yuma Do is a student in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, majoring in Political Science and double minoring in History and International and Global Studies. Her father has been working for the International Organization for Migration for as long as she remembers, and as a result, she has been able to live in Vietnam, Jordan, New Jersey, Virginia, and now Switzerland. She has always admired her father's work, and knows that the Gardner Fellowship will offer wonderful opportunities and experiences that will help her pursue her goal of working in the humanitarian field as well. Yuma has also just joined Sigma Psi Zeta Sorority, Inc., which is an Asian-interest organization that works to combat violence against women, and is an official partner to the It’s On Us campaign. She will serve as fundraising, recruitment, and performance chairs in the fall semester. Yuma has also had the opportunity to serve as a Learning Assistant for Physics 109: Astronomy & Cosmology, and a student tutor for Patterns in Civilization: Love this past spring, and learned a lot from her teaching experiences. This past summer, she took a course in International Law at the Geneva Summer Schools. In her free time, she likes to stay in and play around with Photoshop and watch cat videos and food shows, but when she does go out, she loves trying new restaurants and cafes.
- Research Topic: An Evaluation of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
Angela Febres is a commuter student majoring in Political Science and minoring in Sociology in the School of Arts & Sciences (SAS). She has spent the last year and a half working for the Public Information Office of the Honorable Mayor Wilda Diaz. At Rutgers, Angela serves as an academic tutor and a peer mentor for the SAS Honors Program. In her community, Angela is the Executive Assistant to the president of Presencia del Rey Outreach Inc., a non-profit organization with operations throughout New Jersey, serving on planning boards and as a team leader. She plans on becoming an attorney with focuses in the areas of immigration, contract, and property law. Angela has particular interest in the fields of political economy, voter behavior as well as Latin American and European politics.
Ashley Fowler is a member of the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in English, and a member of the Douglass Residential College. At Rutgers, Ashley has authored an opinions column about sexuality and feminism since her freshman year. She has worked as an intern for Dialogues @ RU, where she assisted in selecting and editing articles for a multi-disciplinary publication produced by Rutgers. Outside of school, Ashley has worked for the non-profit Answer since 2016, first as an editorial staff member for Answer's publication, Sex, Etc., a nationally distributed sexual health magazine and website. As a staff member at Answer, Ashley has worked to provide comprehensive, accurate, and inclusive information about sexuality, and has a special passion for providing information and resources for queer youth. In regards to her advocacy, she has been interviewed by HelloGiggles and PopSugar, and was selected to attend a conference on teen sexual health in San Francisco. Ashley also enjoys working with children, and is involved with a mentoring program for gifted students. In her free time, Ashley enjoys writing, reading, and being bad at her waitressing job.
- Research Topic: Room and Time Enough
LaVee Johnson interposes on the path of intricate arts and the elusive science of people. As an English and Communication Major, social issues and the social structures that allow social injustices guide her research projects. She took an innovative approach utilizing Black Feminist Theory to analyze Solange Knowles’ album, A Seat at the Table. She takes at look at the careful composition of Solange’s video performances to illuminate the underlying messages and approach to the visuals. She Is a thankful recipient of the School of Arts and Sciences Excellence Award, The Julian Breen Memorial Endowed Award, and Student Access & Equity Grant Aid Award. As a scholar of the Paul Robeson Leadership Institute she draws awareness to the reality of the experience of underrepresented, low income, and/or first generation students on campus and nationally. She has interned at Learnivore and FlockU News to give hand on experiences with both of her majors as a marketing intern and contributing writer. LaVee plans to acquire a Master’s of Communication to pursue art, marketing, and justice without barriers. She remains interested in art’s impact on social structures and vice versa. She is a lover of songwriting, visual compositions, and creating in general. Her future is unable to be reduced to one thing. She is a freedom fighter literally and figuratively.
- Research Topic: Reconstructions from Home: Passive Confrontation
Isaac Margolis is a student in the School of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Political Science and History. He is currently a research assistant for the Religious Studies department where he is working on a project analyzing populism in the context of traditional martyrdom. This past summer, Isaac was the only undergraduate legal clerk for one of the premier mass tort law departments in the country, where he worked with attorneys on the largest multi-district litigation in the country. He is also a co-founder and current Vice President of the newly revamped Rutgers Undergraduate History Club, and is an active member of the Rutgers University Seeing Eye Puppy Raising Club. In his free time, Isaac enjoys cooking, hiking, and training puppies for the Seeing Eye Program.
- Leadership Position: Programs
- Alum: Milligan, John
John M Milligan is a student in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, majoring in political science with a double-minor in geography and environmental policy, institutions and behavior (EPIB). For the past two summers John has served as a program assistant for the Rutgers Mandela Washington Fellowship, Civic Leadership Institute. In this role he worked directly under the institute’s academic director, Dr. Ronald Quincy, assisting in the planning and coordination of academic and professional programming as part of a fellowship overseen by the U.S. Department of State. As an Aresty research assistant, John worked with Dr. Pamela McElwee of the Department of Human Ecology on her research in representing climate vulnerability in Vietnam. In January 2018, John traveled with a cohort of Honors College/Program students to South Africa and Swaziland, spending time in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban to study the lingering effects of Apartheid. John is the treasurer of Students for Environmental Awareness (SEA) where he is involved in organizing film screenings, clean-ups, and club activities. Following his undergraduate studies, John is interested in pursuing graduate school and civil service work. In his free time he enjoys reading and encouraging others to read, tweeting too much, playing Zoo Tycoon, and re-watching Parks and Recreation.
Megan O'Boyle is a student in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in Political Science and minoring in Psychology. She has spent time during the summer interning with both Congressman Frank Pallone and the Monmouth County Superior Court's Civil Division. During her time at Rutgers, she has worked with the Eagleton Institute of Politics through their Darien Civic Engagement Project. This program allows Rutgers students to personally go into local New Brunswick high school classes with the intent to foster intellectual growth and encourage civic engagement through meetings with these students. In the future, she hopes to attend law school and continue affecting change in the world around her. She looks forward to continuing this work as a part of the Lloyd C. Gardner Program this year.
- Research Topic: Portrayals of Death in War:Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan
Tess Osborne is a student in the Honors College School of Arts and Sciences, majoring in English and minoring in French and Environmental Policy, Institutions, and Behavior. She is a Harvey M. Schwartz Endowed Scholar as well as a Rutgers Trustee Scholar. Tess is president of the Honors College Book Club and a docent at the Zimmerli Art Museum. This fall, Tess is excited to welcome Rutgers newcomers as a Scarlet Ambassador; she will also be an editor of the Rutgers research journal Dialogues@RU. In the fall of her sophomore year, she was a campaign coordinator at the non-profit organization NJPIRG where she organized events to inform the public about the routine misuse of antibiotics on factory farms. This past summer, Tess studied abroad in Paris for six weeks, taking courses in French literature and film. In her free time, Tess enjoys reading literature, writing, and visiting museums.
Neeha Pathan is an Honors College and Douglass Residential College student in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in Biology and minoring in Psychology. She is also a part of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School BA/MD program and will begin medical school next summer. Neeha is passionate about global health policy and pursues this interest as a part of Rutgers Institute for Domestic and International Affairs (IDIA). She currently serves in the role of Director of Administration for Philadelphia Model United Nations (PhilMUN) and has previously assistant directed a committee on the World Health Organization (WHO) and directed a committee on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Neeha is passionate about social innovation and was an Innovation Fellow in the Honors College innovation lab. She will be attending the Clinton Global Initiative this fall with her project, PeriPlant, an initiative to create affordable, all-natural biodegradable feminine hygiene products for women in need. Neeha is also involved with the Honors College Mentoring Pod Program and researches in the lab of Dr. Margolis, studying optogenetics in mice. In the winter of 2017, Neeha was lucky enough to travel to South Africa and study Apartheid and the Civil Rights movement. She is beyond excited to be part of the Gardner program this fall.
Sara Safa is a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences, double majoring in Political Science and Psychology. She currently serves as President of the Rutgers Big Buddy Club, which works with students at the local New Brunswick Elementary School. There, she and other members provide positive influences for children and assist them in their daily tasks. In the future, she hopes to attend law school to eventually continue her passion of working with children and become a child advocate lawyer.
Jonas Tai is a student in the Honors College and School of Arts and Sciences majoring in Classics, History, and Medieval Studies, with an interest in ancient Greek and Byzantine history. He is a founding member of and has served on the board of the Undergraduate Society of History. In the spring of 2018, under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Figueira, he presented a research paper on the healing sanctuaries of Asklepios at the annual Sunoikisis Undergraduate Research Symposium at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He is a recipient of the Classics Department’s Ethel S. Cook Travel Scholarship, under which he was able to spend the summer of 2018 in Greece and Bulgaria. At the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, he spent six weeks visiting historical sites across Greece while meeting scholars of the ancient world. He also spent another month at the Balkan Heritage Field School, digging at the site of a late Antique monastery in Varna. Jonas aims to attend a graduate program in history or classical studies.
- Research Topic: The Archaic Evolution and Classical Parameters of Andrapodismos
- Leadership Position: Outreach
- Alum: Wong, Michelle
Michelle Wong is a student in the School of Arts & Sciences - Rutgers Business School Honors Program majoring in Supply Chain & Marketing Science and Political Science. Michelle is currently working as a Supply Chain Data Management co-op at Johnson & Johnson where she supports portfolio management and other data services in addition to organizing community events for her role as Credo Chair in the Intern & Co-op Association. In the past, she has worked as an Aresty Research Assistant for an organizational ethics case study of the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal under Professor Christopher Castille, a legal secretary for the Law Offices of Wong, Wong & Associates, and a legislative intern for New Jersey State Senator Linda Greenstein. On campus, Michelle is an SAS Honors Ambassador and is also involved with Rutgers GenUN, serving as the chapter’s UNA-USA Liaison. This past year, she has attended the UNA-USA Global Engagement Summit as well the UNA-USA Leadership Summit in an effort to help drive advocacy for the UN in America. In the future, Michelle hopes to pursue graduate studies in International Relations and work in humanitarian supply chain in both the private and public sectors.
