The Class of 2017
Meet Rutgers graduates who have left their mark on this institution and are poised to pursue their passions after commencement. These students are exemplars of this diverse and engaging academic community. We celebrate their achievements and look forward to the bright futures ahead.
Rutgers Senior Inspires Peers to Make Their Mark
Spoken word poet Alyea Pierce is passionate about performance and leadership. She combined both to elevate the university’s Mark Conference – growing it from 170 students to this year’s sold-out crowd of 530. She will earn her master’s in college student affairs at Rutgers' Graduate School of Education.
Rutgers’ Mason Gross senior Anna Gichan explores her identity with – and without – hearing aids. This duality, she believes, is tied to her love of dancing and sense of happiness.
Golfer, Journalist and Entrepreneur: Kayla Jackson is a Renaissance Student
While her peers were playing in the sandbox, she was playing the links. Golf instilled a tenacity in the Rutgers senior that helps her excel both on and off the greens. The journalism and media studies major's latest ambition is a crowd-funding startup to help students pay for college.
After high school, Sten Knutsen's fascination with electrical and mechanical engineering took a backseat to his faith. Today, the 47-year-old linguistics, computer science and cognitive science major is grateful he traded his full-time job to become a full-time student and 'figure things out'.
'Rutgers Senior Flourishes After Leaving Egypt During ‘Arab Spring’
Chris Wakim’s odyssey took him from Alexandria, Egypt, to Bergen Community College to the School of Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, where he will graduate this month with a double major in microbiology and the biotechnology concentration in bioinformatics.
Albert Appouh knows adversity. His Ghanaian immigrant parents divorced when he was 5. He came out as gay in high school and faced taunts. He has grappled with a learning disability and battled mental health issues. But through it all, this graduating senior has overcome great odds.
Chelsie Riche, an Africana studies and history double-major whose research and activism at Rutgers led her to Cape Town, South Africa, and Washington, D.C., will pursue her master's degree in African studies at the University of Cambridge.
Dianne Barba’s decision to become a nurse came upon her a little more than two years ago as she lay in a hospital bed the day after undergoing brain surgery.
Theron Alexander’s dream is not to be the center of attention, but to be at the center of the action working as a stage manager in the theater. And, as he gets ready to graduate, he already has some professional experience to claim on his resume.
As a child, Steve Gussman watched intently as his older brother played video games such as “Super Mario 64.” Now he’s graduating from Rutgers-Camden with a self-proposed bachelor’s degree in holistic video game development and minors in digital studies and physics and realizing his dream of working as a full-time video game designer.
When Doreen Sparrow finally receives her degree from the School of Engineering this month, she will not only reach a goal that took her nearly three decades to achieve, she will also see her youngest son earn his bachelor's degree from Rutgers’ School of Arts and Sciences.
Sydney Hyder, who graduates from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as a Gold Humanism Scholar, has traveled throughout the country to see how others live.
After excelling as a Rutgers Future Scholar, Terrell Woods, who is graduating cum laude from Rutgers University-Newark, wants to pursue a career in criminal justice and serve on the Supreme Court.
As Chioma Igwebuike graduates from Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick and begins her career at Goldman Sachs, she is already thinking about how to help others.