Justin Cothron is a rising junior in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, double majoring in Criminal Justice and Psychology. He first engaged with the broader Rutgers community as a volunteer with the Rutgers Advancing Community Development program, organizing a seminar for people experiencing unstable housing in and around New Brunswick. This program showed him that the systems in place are insufficient to aid people facing housing challenges.
Justin is currently a Learning Assistant for Topics in Mathematics for the Liberal Arts and is conducting criminal justice research for the Department of Sociology. Outside of the classroom, Justin is interning for Mintz and Gold, a law firm in Midtown Manhattan, working closely with the firm’s criminal division. This upcoming year, Justin will be a Resident Assistant for the Newell Apartments on Cook campus.
Justin’s interests lie at the intersection of criminal justice and education, firmly believing that educating citizens on their constitutional rights can help prevent criminal justice net widening. During the Gardner Fellowship, Justin hopes to meet like-minded individuals and conduct research to illuminate criminal justice and policy issues for our generation to overcome.
After graduation, Justin plans to attend law school to receive his Juris Doctor, work as a federal prosecutor, and eventually work as a federal trial judge. In his free time, Justin enjoys spending time with friends, learning new languages (he is currently learning basic Russian), and playing fetch with his dog, a mini Golden-doodle named Sparky.