Charles “Chuck” A. Wright III beams when talking about his new role leading fundraising and alumni engagement efforts at Rutgers University–Camden. “I love the focus here on underrepresented and first-generation students,” Wright says. “These students have big dreams and they go after them. To be able to support their dreams is exciting.”
Less than a month after earning her MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, a T-shirt Grace Lynne Haynes designed for Black History Month hit the racks at Old Navy.
“I wanted a place where people could feel welcomed and included,” said Brennah Lambert, a 2020 alumna of Rutgers School of Business–Camden and owner of LesbiVeggies, a plant-based, gluten-free café in Audubon, N.J. The self-taught chef knew the menu would be an important part of the restaurant, but for this Gen Z entrepreneur, the atmosphere was equally crucial.
As a first-generation Palestinian American, Rutgers alumnus Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh intimately understands the sometimes-isolating experience of being Muslim in America. “My mom is a Palestinian refugee, and my dad is a Jordanian immigrant,” he says. “At a very young age, I was socially conscious about movements happening abroad and what my identity means in the scope of living in America.”
Artwork by Lavett Ballard, a 2014 graduate of Rutgers University–Camden, is featured on the cover of the latest issue of TIME, the second instance her work has graced the magazine.
Assata Davis’s passion for racial and social justice was sparked in middle school at the start of the Black Lives Matter movement and continued to grow at Rutgers University-New Brunswick’s Honors College, where she thrived as an academic standout and student leader.