Rutgers Class of 2009: Graduates to Watch

RUTGERS CLASS OF 2009: GRADUATES TO WATCH

            NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – More than 11,000 students from the New Brunswick, Newark and Camden campuses are poised to receive their degrees from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, during a week of collegiate convocations beginning May 17 and at the universitywide commencement Wednesday, May 20. Among the graduates are exceptional individuals who have inspirational stories, including softball teammates who didn’t let serious injuries beat them, a fighter for workers’ rights and a globetrotter expanding his horizons in an attempt to control a threat to human health.

William Beversluis

Hometown: East Hanover

Majors: Geography and Criminal Justice, Rutgers College

Contact: willbeve@eden.rutgers.edu

He’s no on-air personality, but just as valuable

Students tuning in to the RU-tv network, probably take for granted that the network will be up and running. For that luxury, they can thank William Beversluis. As operations manager, the senior has helped maintain the quality of the network’s broadcasts while also overseeing scheduling. The New Brunswick-Piscataway campus network offers more than 70 channels of educational, news, public affairs, entertainment and commercial programming, including productions by students, faculty and staff.

Besides serving as operations manager, Beversluis also is a mentor team leader for the student-run network. In that role, he oversees training programs, monitors the progress of new student colleagues and trains new mentors. His work at the network earned Beversluis a nomination as Rutgers’ 2009 Student Employee of the Year, and he finished among the top 10 nominees.

During his tenure, Beversluis has overseen a staff of up to 20 fellow students. He also helped formalize and modernize training procedures for RU-tv and contributed to a new 80-page manual for future generations of managers, supervisors and operators. “I think working as a supervisor and manager helped me develop communication abilities that go beyond the day-to-day skills,” Beversluis said. “I was encountering people from different backgrounds, while trying to monitor the whole network seven days a week.”

Beverslus says he’s interested in a career with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or in the aviation field, but hasn’t ruled out serving in the U.S. military.

Paul M. Bonness

Hometown: North Plainfield

Major: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering

Contact: pbonness@eden.rutgers.edu

Interest in aerospace began long ago, far away

Back in the 1970s, at age 7 or 8, Paul M. Bonness got his blueprint for an aerospace career through a bold, one-on-one talk with a since forgotten Apollo-era astronaut who was visiting a New Mexico shopping mall.

Now, with years of business success, military service, and most recently, a NASA internship under his belt, Bonness, 42, is about to take another step – or maybe a giant leap – toward his dream career. On May 20, this well-rounded math and science whiz will earn his bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering. “My ultimate dream is to work for NASA,” Bonness says, recalling the astronaut’s recommendations on how to get there – focus on math and science, join the Air Force ROTC, and earn a degree in mechanical engineering.

Through the years, a family opportunity to help run a national HVAC-supply business gave his quest an on-again, off-again quality, but Bonness never took his eye off the ball, even when he was busy doing other things. His resume includes Air Force ROTC at the University of New Mexico and a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps. He developed drafting and graphics skills. He ran his company’s three stores in Texas, before moving to New Jersey. Returning to academics, he studied science and math at Union County College.

In 2006, Bonness transferred to Rutgers and became a standout in mechanical and aerospace engineering, president of the student chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and helped organize, with Professor Haym Benaroya, last June’s Symposium on Lunar Settlements. Then it was off to an internship at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, where he spent the summer and fall testing helicopter rotor components in a wind tunnel. Next will come graduate work at Rutgers, with an eventual goal of working for NASA.

Bonness says being an older student with lots of life, business and military experience has its benefits. “You have the discipline to get stuff done, and procrastination and motivation are no longer problems,” he says. “It’s never too late to go back to school, no matter where you are in life.”

Laura Boss

Hometown: New Brunswick

Major: Elementary Education, Graduate School of Education

Contact: laura033081@yahoo.com

A student’s triumph over dyslexia

A decade ago, Laura Boss wouldn’t have dared to dream of a career as a teacher. For her entire academic life, Boss struggled with dyslexia, a learning disability that made it difficult to read fluently and express herself through writing.

In high school, Boss was frustrated by her poor academic performance. “My papers would come back covered in red ink,” she recalls. But despite her struggles, deep down, she says, “I knew I was as smart as the top students in my class.”

Boss was wise to listen to her inner muse. On May 20, she will receive her master’s degree from Rutgers’ Graduate School of Education, completing the program with a GPA of 3.9.

Boss is proud of her accomplishments, for which she has to thank a few patient teachers along the way who, she says, “saw her intellectual capabilities and took the time to understand how I learned best.” Academic success did not come overnight, however. Boss attended Sienna College, where she struggled but made strides. “I slowly developed as a writer and figured out how to read through large amounts of literature,” she says.

After graduation, Boss worked in schools as an instructional aide. At one job she assisted with a group of children who had severe disabilities. That’s where she learned the joy of deeply connecting with students, and from that time on, knew her destiny was to become a transformative teacher.

“As a teacher, I want to support children and motivate them to want to succeed,” Boss says. “I hope to show my students that, like me, they can wish upon any star.”

Carissa Conroy

Hometown: Richmond, Va.

Major: Exercise Science and Sports Studies, Livingston College

Contact: carissac@eden.rutgers.edu

Four surgeries can’t stop dedicated athlete

When Carissa Conroy joined the Rutgers softball team in 2006, she was widely known for her pitching arm at Mills E. Godwin High School in her hometown of Richmond, Va., having filled a duffle bag with all-district, all-region, all-state and all-academic honors. But after four major surgeries, the graduating senior is best known for her extraordinary dedication to the game and her teammates.

As a first-year student, Conroy underwent wrist surgery for a swelling condition. After intense pain continued to shoot through her shoulder, she endured an unusual shoulder surgery that involved removing a rib to alleviate her pain.

The longtime pitcher was determined to return for her sophomore and junior years, but she was sidelined both seasons by further injuries and medical procedures. With all signs pointing to a forced “retirement,” Conroy returned her senior year – this time, not as a pitcher but as a pinch hitter. In the meantime, Conroy made use of her time off the field to become a “team mom and mental motivator” for her teammates. “This experience really taught me my character,” Conroy said. “I’m totally fine with people not remembering me for my softball talent because softball will not do anything for me down the road. It’s more about the character you create in this environment that will help you succeed in life.”

Imani N. Davis

Hometown: Piscataway

Major: Communications, Douglass College

Contact: idavis@eden.rutgers.edu

Community service comes naturally to James Dickson Carr scholar

Since her first job at 13 at a New Brunswick daycare center, Imani Davis has valued the importance of community service. Her penchant for helping others earned Davis a prestigious James Dickson Carr Scholarship, named for Rutgers’ first African-American graduate. With it came entry into the Carr Society, an organization whose members “… pledge to be on the frontline – fighting for social change and striving for academic excellence as we lead our peers along the way.”

As a sophomore spending a semester in South Africa, Davis worked on a project for township school children that included building a community library. She and her co-volunteers created a Website to promote the cause and solicited donations from friends and family back home. Their success made Davis realize, “I aspired to a career where I could positively impact people’s lives.”

Davis has done just that during her years at Rutgers. She is proud of her leadership roles as treasurer and community service chair in the Douglass Black Student Congress. Following graduation, she will continue with opportunities to help others. She is one of only two graduates named a Johnson & Johnson Fellow in the Office of Corporate Contributions. Her job will entail matching corporate volunteers with community service opportunities, and working on food, clothing and book drives. After hours, she will pursue a master’s degree in communication studies from Rutgers’ School of Communication, Information and Library Studies.

Ismanie Guillame

Hometown: Union

Major: Food science, food chemistry option, Douglass College

Email: blackkat@eden.rutgers.edu

Late Bloomer

Despite being an honors student in high school, Ismanie Guillame was well into her senior year before she even considered going to college. The third of four children born to Haitian immigrants, she simply had not given the matter serious thought. “I knew absolutely nothing about college outside of Harvard, Yale and Princeton – and I only knew those because of how often they were mentioned on TV,” she says. “I hadn’t even taken the SATs yet.”

A visit with her guidance counselor soon remedied that situation, and the counselor also recommended that Guillame apply to Rutgers. She was accepted, and matriculated as “an extremely unfocused, unsure girl of 17” who, despite growing up in New Jersey, had never visited Rutgers or New Brunswick before her acceptance.

What a difference four years can make! Guillame will graduate cum laude and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She is president of the Rutgers University Programming Association, a member of the Student Advisory Council of the vice president of student affairs, and is the public relations chair of Ubuntu, a social justice and human rights advocacy group. She has mentored for Douglass Residential College and tutored students, as well.

After a summer public health internship at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, Guillame will pursue a master’s degree in biomedical engineering at the University of London. Her long-term project is what she calls the Food Clinic – “an interdisciplinary, collaborative project with active communication and sharing of knowledge between physicians, food scientists, psychologists, exercise scientists, nutritionists and a variety of other disciplines” that would be focused on addressing the global pandemic of obesity.

Lissette Herrera

Hometown: Plainfield

Major: Sociology and Spanish linguistics, Douglass College

Contact: lherrera@eden.rutgers.edu

Graduate finds life doesn’t necessarily imitate art

The movie usually goes something like this: A dangerous-looking high school is populated by socially maladjusted students. Teachers are ineffectual. Chaos reigns. Then one day a new teacher arrives on the scene packing a powerful personality and new ways of doing things. Eventually the teacher wins the hearts and minds of the students. Attitudes and test scores soar.  It’s a new day at Hard Knocks High.

As a graduate of Plainfield High School in an Abbott (special needs) school district, Lissette Herrera has long known life doesn’t necessarily imitate art. At Rutgers, Herrera created an opportunity to formally study how movies often portray the urban high school milieu: decaying infrastructure, undisciplined students, white teacher as the hero or heroine in the urban classroom. She examined how this media-constructed identity in four movies – Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfeiffer as the teacher, Music of the Heart with Meryl Streep, The Ron Clark Story with Matthew Perry and Freedom Writers with Hilary Swank – has shaped the discourse of urban education and white teachers’ interactions with students, administration, families, and communities.

“In many communities, white people and people of color don’t interact, except maybe at work. When people don’t interact, they tend to base their biases on what they see in the media,” said Herrera. “In my own experience, it doesn’t matter what race the teacher is,” Herrera said. “There are good and bad teachers of all races and cultures.”

And back at the old school, there’s a new “teacher” in town who “breaks the mold.” Herrera has been tutoring students once a week through the Rutgers Paul Robeson Cultural Center American Reads Tutoring Program.

Judith Rutberg Kuskin

Hometown: Summit

Master of Social Work, School of Social Work

Contact: judykuskin@hotmail.com

Success at the end of a long, winding road

Judith Rutberg Kuskin is probably graduating with a 4.0 average from Rutgers’ School of Social Work, not bad for someone who had been out of school since 1984. On the other hand, she’s had plenty of practice: her fourth college degree carries special meaning because her MSW is the one she’s wanted for as long as she can remember.

Kuskin’s bachelor’s degree from SUNY-Stony Brook in 1968 led to her second, a master’s from Boston College in orientation and mobility therapy for the blind. After graduation, she worked at the New York Lighthouse for the Blind and then ran a graduate program at Hunter College. When the federal grant for that was suspended, to support herself, “I decided to go to law school only because I knew I could continue working during the day. My interest was still social work but at the time, the required classes and internships took too many hours for me to hold a job and go to school,” Kuskin said.

Following her 1984 graduation from Brooklyn Law School and admittance to the New York, New Jersey and Florida bars, Kuskin worked at a New York firm as a commercial lawyer. “It was not for me,” she says. “I’m not an adversarial person and I hated helping people fight.”

In 1987 she married and soon became the mother of two. During the next 18 years, Kuskin was a part-time attorney, created and ran a teen dating violence program for the National Council of Jewish Woman and became certified as a divorce/family mediator. Though mediation was “close” to counseling, Kuskin wasn’t satisfied. “I couldn’t help my clients understand how their feelings were affecting their actions,” she says. “I really wanted to show them that their personal issues shaped their families as well as themselves. But it was off-limits, and I needed the training I received at Rutgers.”

While pursuing her master’s, Kuskin was able to balance family and academic responsibilities, and interned at Summit Oaks Hospital and Nutley Family Service, experiences that confirmed her decision to become a social worker. “At one point I was talking with clients and thought,  ‘they really needed counseling,’” Kuskin said. “It took me a moment to realize that I was finally able to provide it, and it only took 37 years to get there.”

Brittany Loisel

Hometown: Phoenix, Ariz.

Major: Finance, Douglass College

Contact: bloisel3@gmail.com

Softballer hangs up her glove – but not her career in athletics

When Brittany Loisel came to Rutgers following a top-flight career as a second baseman at Coronado High School in Las Vegas, it was clear that she would make a big impact on Rutgers’ softball team. But after suffering serious injuries, the Arizona native (and Nevada transplant when her dad pursued a job opportunity) learned that she could make just as big a difference off the field.

Named the team’s Rookie of the Year and MVP, and the All-Big East second baseman after an outstanding freshman season, Loisel took a pitch square in the face during a scrimmage in the fall of 2006, breaking her nose in four places. After undergoing surgery, she returned to the team just four weeks later. But she broke her nose a second time while sliding into second base and eventually underwent five procedures to help correct functional and aesthetic problems. After suffering a third broken nose during her junior year, Loisel stopped playing on her doctor’s advice.

But she stayed on as a student-assistant coach, also serving on the Rutgers Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), a group that addresses issues that affect student-athletes. She eventually represented the Big East Conference on the National SAAC and served on several NCAA committees.

Loisel’s participation rekindled a deep passion for athletics and helping other athletes. After graduation, she plans to work for The Corporate Playbook, a company that helps student-athletes connect with the business world and make a transition after their playing careers are over.

“This definitely has been a roller coaster for me, both emotionally and physically,” Loisel said, “but I think in the end, it has been a positive experience. There is that old saying that ‘what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.’ I’ve really been able to find out who I am as a person and not as a player, and I think I really needed that.”

Karim Mahmoud

Hometown: Wallington

Majors: Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies, Rutgers College

Contact: hmahmoud@eden.rutgers.edu

Clear focus helps student-athlete negotiate life’s challenges

The way he sees it, the path Karim Mahmoud has taken as a student-athlete at Rutgers has prepared him well for the challenges he expects to take on in the future.

The 21-year-old Mahmoud, a graduate of Wallington High School, has juggled a full schedule throughout his college career. Not only will he graduate with a double major, Mahmoud was also a four-year member and three-year starter on the Scarlet Knights’ wrestling team.

That busy schedule that Mahmoud has grown accustomed to will continue. He already has been accepted to Brooklyn and Seton Hall law schools, and he will study law on a part-time basis while working full-time. At the same time, he’ll be planning his 2010 wedding to Noha Amer, a senior from Paramus, who will graduate with a degree in journalism and media studies.

“School is always a challenge, whether you’re a freshman or a senior. It’s just that the challenges are different year to year,” Mahmoud said. “For example, as a freshman you need to learn time management. And as a college athlete, you need to do a lot of extra work to reach the next level.”

One such challenge for Mahmoud, who wrestled at both the 197-pound and heavyweight weight classes, was to observe the monthlong Muslim holiday Ramadan, which includes fasting from sunrise to sunset. “Some might think that dropping a few pounds to make weight before a match is a challenge. For a wrestler, it’s almost second nature,” Mahmoud said. “For me, the challenge was that Ramadan came during preseason training, a very difficult time. I had to plan my meals carefully, drink plenty of fluids at breakfast before sunrise and eat right after sunset because I do lose muscle mass.”  

Throughout his time at Rutgers, Mahmoud has remained focused, patient and disciplined. That’s why the advice he would offer to any incoming collegian would come as no surprise. “Don’t give away what you want most, for what you want now,” he said.

August “AJ” Schneeberg

Hometown: Flanders

Major: Labor and Employment Relations, School of Management and Labor Relations, Livingston College

Contact: augusts@rutgers.edu

Fighting for workers’ rights

Throughout his time at Rutgers, August “AJ” Schneeberg fought for workers’ rights.

In his first year, Schneeberg reactivated the dormant Rutgers Labor Association (RLA) and became its president. The student organization’s activities include participating in the New Jersey Budget Campaign, a coalition advocating revenue proposals as alternatives to cutting funding to vital services, such as higher education.

But the RLA’s most visible success happened right on campus. The group learned that a supplier of Rutgers apparel, Russell Athletic, had closed a Honduras factory last year. Although management denied it, the alleged reason was because the workers had unionized. Russell violated the Designated Suppliers Program and left the 1,800 former employees blacklisted from working with other companies. Schneeberg headed a campaign that persuaded Rutgers not to renew its contract with the company last February. “The broader goal is to show companies – before they close their factory – that there’s a price to pay,” Schneeberg says. “If you don’t adhere to basic human rights, at least on college campuses, students aren’t going to be OK with that.”

Schneeberg comes from a family of union members. He first took interest in labor issues in 1999, when his father had to write the closing contract for his oil plant. Workers were calling Schneeberg’s father in tears. “I started to realize people’s jobs are pretty important to them,” he says.

Schneeberg received the Anthony Zuccarello Labor Studies Scholarship for his contribution as a union organizer for the Communication Workers of America. He was also a field research intern for Change to Win and will speak at the School of Management and Labor Relations’ convocation May 18.

Avi Smolen

Hometown: New Milford

Major: Political Science, Rutgers College

Contact: avismolen@gmail.com 

Top grad and Tony Blair: comrades-in-arms against malaria

Besides political science, Avi Smolen appears to have earned a degree in understanding and collaboration. Each of his passport stamps represents a “mile marker” along his journey of service to those in need. During college, he built retaining walls for Nicaraguan famers to protect their crops, renovated a home for girls at-risk in Israel and toured the Balkans with other Jewish and Palestinian students to learn and demonstrate how diverse nationalities and religions can co-exist. His trip to the Balkans included stops in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Montenegro.

These experiences helped prepare Smolen for his next challenge. He is one of 30 fellows from the U.S., U.K. and Canada selected by the Faith Acts Fellowship program to visit Mali, Malawi and Tanzania to observe the scourge of malaria in Africa. They also will meet in London with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose new initiative, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, aims to eradicate the disease. According to a 2005 World Health Organization report, malaria claims 1 million victims a year. Blair’s foundation says the illness is easily prevented by using bed nets sprayed with insecticide for about $10 each.  

When he returns from Africa, Smolen will partner with Randa Kuziez, vice president of the Muslim Students Association, and collaborate with groups including Malaria No More, in an interfaith effort to inspire, encourage and engage religious and youth groups and policymakers in Washington, D.C., by discussing his travels.

Smolen is adept at working across religious lines. He was co-recipient of the 2007 Rutgers Human Dignity Award for his work in “Days Without Hate,” a weeklong series of events promoting tolerance and diminished hate. As president of Rutgers Hillel, Smolen initiated a campuswide interfaith dialogue. His trip to the Balkans provided a strong foundation. “Religion can be a destructive force tearing civilizations apart,” he said, “or the beginning of an exchange of ideas about tolerance, respect, and co-existence.”

Robert Toth

Hometown: Hillsborough

Major: Engineering, School of Engineering

Contact robtoth@gmail.com

He’s got a patent for success

You might expect big things from an engineering student who will earn his bachelor’s degree with three-quarters of the work needed for a doctorate already completed. But who would expect this undergraduate to already be winning national awards for his research and also have his name on a medical patent?

Robert Toth, 21, will soon graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. Last October, he was named on a patent filed for computer software that uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other modalities to find breast and prostate cancers without biopsies. In February, he presented his work on the project at a national imaging conference in Orlando and won first prize and $1,000 for the best paper, beating out 34 doctoral students from around the world.

Though doctorate bound, Toth intends to stay at Rutgers one more year to earn his master’s in engineering, then hopes to enroll in an MBA program. His long-term goal is to start a medical devices company. “A hands-on research experience as an undergraduate at Rutgers truly made a difference in my academic career, Toth says, “and I would encourage other undergrads to engage in research projects of their own.”