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The RAA Young Alumni Committee would like to spotlight some of the fantastic journeys Rutgers graduates are taking as they enter the workforce and make a difference in their community. We are pleased to share a series of young alumni profiles, and their advice to both current and recently graduated students.
SAS '14
Mike Greengarten, is the Assistant Director of Athletic Development, Communications and Engagement at RFund, and was formerly Director of Marketing & Fan Experience for Rutgers Athletics. He is a Rutgers SAS class of 2014 graduate and recently graduated with a Masters in Global Sports Business. The following text has been edited for clarity and space; for the full interview see the video or read the transcript.
Jordan Cohen: You graduated class of 2014. What brought you to Rutgers?
Mike Greengarten: Well, ever since I was three years old, I’ve been coming to Rutgers games, sporting events with my dad and my family from football to baseball, to playing on the field at Yurcak during halftime at soccer games, everything. Men’s basketball, women’s basketball, every sport.
I was always on campus. I was always running around Rutgers. I was born in St. Peter’s in New Brunswick. My family was always around Rutgers University and ever since I was three, I’ve always wanted to come here and I was able to come and be a double graduate from Rutgers and you know, able to finally work here in the athletic department, which was always the dream.
You said your father and your grandfather?
Yeah. My dad was a huge Rutgers fan growing up. He brought me to all the games. Before the student section was there at the football games I sat in section 103 a men’s basketball games, I played on the soccer field at Yurcak, so he’d always bring me around. My my uncle actually Alan Stull played for the 1950 Rutgers College world series baseball team, and he has an endowed scholarship named after him now here. So he always used to bring me around as well. My whole family grew up in Highland park, Edison, New Brunswick. I was always around Rutgers and this is always where I wanted to be.
This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Rutgers University, the trajectory that it’s going now with, with President Holloway, Pat Hobbs, Carly Northup, and Liz Boyd. Everyone that I work with and everyone that works here, it’s an incredible place to be. And there’s no place I’d rather be than Rutgers university.
Let’s talk about when you were a student. You were part of a couple different societies, you worked with the athletics department as a student. What are some of your most meaningful experiences when you were a student at Rutgers?
Since I was 10 years old, I wanted to be an athletic director. Before I was 10, I wanted to be the next Derek Jeter. I went to the doctor and the doctor said, ‘you’re going to be five foot eight.’ I looked at my Dad and he said, ‘you’re not going to be the next short stop for the New York Yankees.’ And I said, ‘no, you’re right. I’m not.’ At that point I met my stepfather, Kevin McHugh, and he was the athletic director at TCNJ at the time.
Ever since I met Kevin and through his time in collegiate athletics, I’ve always wanted to work in college athletics because of him. And while I was working here at Rutgers, I got to work with Will Gilkinson in football operations. I got to work with Drew Robinson, social media and branding and marketing.
I got to work in the ticket office. I got to work with our sponsorship team. I got to work in so many different areas right here at Rutgers. Because of the work that I was able to do, people trusted me to do a great job. And you know, I’ll never forget those times as an intern.
One time in particular, the West Virginia game where Eric Legrand came out of the tunnel, I’ll never forget that game. I didn’t work the game, but just being there and seeing that happen, going into the bathroom and warming up my hands for hours, because it was so cold. Then when they retired Eric’s number 52, I was the one who gave Coach Flood the sword. I was holding the sword the whole game. That’s literally the only job I had the whole game as an intern was to hold the sword that Coach Flood was going to hold up when Eric’s number was showing up on the upper deck. I was able to do that and I’ll never forget it.
You worked at a couple different schools, you worked at Thomas College, you worked at Bates, you worked at Princeton. What was the difference, between all these different experiences?
Princeton, there’s a Rutgers connection. Brett MacConnell is the associate head coach for the Princeton men’s basketball team nd he was a manager here at Rutgers. He came to speak in one of my classes because I was a sport Management major. After class, not many people went up to him to say hello, but I went up and introduced myself.
And four months later we kept in touch and he offered me an internship. And we’ve been really good friends ever since, not just a working relationship, but we have a personal relationship, which is great. I got to intern with him because of the Rutgers connection. But again, just to be an athletic director, to be well-rounded…the sports industry is extremely difficult to get into.
I felt that I needed the most experience that I could possibly get. Interning at Bates college, with my stepfather, going down to intern with Brett, I worked the summer with the Rockland boulders up in Rockland county, New York, in minor league baseball. Let me tell you that’s a different experience and they do a great job up there, Rockland county with the boulders. So I got to do all that, but all of that is because Rutgers university afforded me the opportunity and gave me the tools and skills necessary to be able to compete in this industry.
“That’s what I want to do with every single one of our fans from a little toddler to beyond. I just want everyone to have a good experience here.”
You graduate in 2014 and end up going off to work for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. And then you ended up coming back to Rutgers as the assistant director for marketing and promotions. Tell us a little bit about what it was like leaving Rutgers for the first time.
The first game I ever worked because at the MAAC; first off, the MAAC is great. Rich Ensor is the commissioner there? He gave me the opportunity. Barbara Church was my direct supervisor. She gave me a great opportunity to work with some great people there.
Lily Rodriguez being one of them. But when I came back and I worked my first ever MAAC game, as it was Monmouth at Rutgers. I had to come back to Rutgers and sit up in the media area. For the first time in my life, I had to root against Rutgers, because I believe that where you work you should be rooting for that institution or in my case institutions, because I worked for the conference, I rooted for Monmouth and that was a very challenging experience for me.
But I got through it. Working in the MAAC was great. And then after my time at the MAAC was done, it was a one-year fellowship, Rutgers gave me the opportunity to come back here. And it was just an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
You come back and you’re working as assistant director of marketing and relatively quickly you then move into a director of marketing and fan experience. Were there specific Rutgers experiences as a student or jobs as a student or classes you had that helped you as you’re on your professional career?
First and foremost, I believe that the sport management major, gave me the tools and skills necessary to be able to work in this industry. It also gave me the platform to build my network and build my experience. Having all these different experiences in operations, ticket, sales, ticket operations, sponsorships all those opportunities were because of what I learned in sports management program, let alone the global sports business masters program. I learned a lot as an undergrad, in all my positions, with all my experience, and with all my professors Professor Finkelstein, Art Berke, everyone that I had the pleasure of being a student under Jason Belzer, Sam Caucci, like everyone that I can think of, or even can’t think of. They all just gave me those tools and it’s because of Rutgers University that I’m able to come back and use those skills, hone those skills to be the best I can possibly be in my position.
I know that a big part of your job was getting students to the games. Were there experiences as a student that helped you overcome any specific challenges? Can you talk about something specific you worked on?
So as a student, just sitting in the student section. I made a fathead of former athletic director, Tim Pernetti. I was brand new and I didn’t know anyone, but I knew I wanted to work in collegiate athletics. I knew I wanted to be an athletic director one day. So I made a fat head of Tim and I sat front row of the student section for a big game. I think we played Syracuse, he came over. I said, ‘you know, Tim, can you sign this?’
He signed it and then I said, ‘my name’s Mike Greengarten I’ve wanted to be an athletic director since I was 10 years. Can you give me 30 minutes of your time at some point down the road, I’d love to just pick your brain.’ He said, ‘yeah, let’s do it. Shoot me an email.’ I shot him an email and a few months later, I’m in his office. He gave me an hour of his time. I picked his brain. It was awesome. Just being creative in the student section at a men’s basketball game, gave me the opportunity to meet him and pick his brain. And that’s a moment I’ll never forget.
Tell us a little bit about an accomplishment or two that you saw make an impact when you were working with athletics.
The biggest accomplishment that I think that I’ve had was just making the fan experience better. I truly believe that, and I still believe my role with the R Fund is to try to make every single fan experience the best it could possibly be. And when I used to see fans at the RAC and I saw a little kid, I’d always make it a point to get a t-shirt and give it to that kid and say, ‘here, I hope you’re a Rutgers fan for life’ because that’s how I started.
I got a headband from Herve Lamizana after a basketball game, and I never let go. I’ve been a Rutgers supporter and a fan ever since. And that’s what I want to do with every single one of our fans from little toddler to beyond. I just want everyone to have a good experience here and beyond the accolades that is my best accomplishment while at Rutgers,
Are there any specific fans or experiences stand out to you?
One story that stands out is Dave White. He sat in 206 with the whole Court Club, shout out the Court Club, Dave White sat in that section and this is when things were tough in basketball. I brought up a popcorn, lucky row of the game to his section without knowing it. He wasn’t there. And so the next game I found out he wasn’t there. So I went up and I gave him a box of popcorn for him and his family. And I said, you know, thank you so much for your support.
I didn’t know Dave at the time but I said,’ thank you for support. I saw you missed the last game when it was your lucky row. You know, I really hope you enjoyed the popcorn’ and we’ve been really good friends ever since. That’s just one experience, but I don’t care. The accolades doesn’t matter. Social media doesn’t matter. You know, I’d do that for anyone, and I want everyone’s experience to be great. That’s just one story that sticks out.
“…whatever you can do to get involved right now, you should get involved. That’s how I was able to be hired. Because I had all this experience right here at Rutgers and they trusted me to do the job…”
You’re working for RFund, you’re probably doing things a little bit differently and seeing kind of doing almost the same job sometimes, but it’s looking at a different, perspective in terms of fan engagement. Is that a fair way to say it?
Yeah, it’s definitely a fair way to say it. Cause we’re not asking our fans to buy season tickets. Obviously you want that to happen and we tell our RFund donors to to buy season tickets but there are many ways to support our student athletes.
You can buy a ticket, you can send positive messages on social media. You can write them a letter. There’s so many different ways to support our student athletes and any way that our fans are capable of supporting our student athletes, we encourage that. But with RFund donors, it’s just telling them that these great things, our student athletes are doing not just on the field, but in the classroom and in the community.
I mean, we’re setting records academically when our student athletes were on campus they were volunteering in the community soup kitchens, just donating clothes. It doesn’t matter. All they do is support the community and we just want our fans to support them. So that’s what I do and I love it.
It’s such a great team to work for, and we have such great R Fund Supporters.
What do you have planned for the future, what’s the next career move?
I’m taking it day by day. I love of what I do right now and we’ll see what happens in the future. Again, my top goals since I was 10 years old, is to be an athletic director at a power five institution.
There are many different ways to get to that point and I hope to one day get there. But right now I’m taking it day by day and just enjoying my time in my current role.
Obviously one of the questions that we ask is how do you stay involved with Alma Mater? I think that’s obvious for you. But how do you stay involved with your friends and in the social community that you had as a student?
I donate to Rutgers, just letting people know. I donate back to support Rutgers university, not just athletics, but also academics. So I support as much as I can. I was in a fraternity Phi Delta Theta and we have a group chat where I still talk all the time with my fraternity brothers. Folks that I was on the floor with at Frelinghuysen Hall, I talk to them all the time. I’m going to someone’s wedding that was in Frelinghuysen Hall my sophomore year. And all these people I went to school with, they’re getting married and I’m really lucky to be going to their weddings and be involved. I try to keep in touch with these people as much as possible I try to keep in touch with these people, with these people as much as possible
Those three years as an undergrad, because I transferred in, I had to cram everything into three years and I wish it could have been longer because there was no place I would rather have gone and no place I’d rather call my Alma mater than Rutgers.
We’re going to be putting these out to students in the school of arts and sciences and also graduating seniors. What kind of advice do you have for them?
Get as much experience in whatever field you have as possible right now. And I know right now is a tough time because of the pandemic. But there are ways to get involved. And even if you don’t want to work in collegiate athletics, at a university, you can get involved right now, right on campus.
You can get internships, you can get involved in clubs, you can be involved in career fairs, talk to academic services, just whatever you can do to get involved right now, you should get involved. That’s how I was able to be hired. Because I had all this experience right here at Rutgers and they trusted me to do the job, even though I didn’t have any marketing experience, two to three years of professional marketing experience.
I didn’t have that, but they knew me. They trusted me. I was a quick learner. And if you want to get involved now’s the time to do it and do it right here on campus. So that’s number one. And number two, just cherish the moments that you have. The friends that you have and stay in touch because I’m seven years out now, which is a scary thought. But I wish I kept in touch with more people. But you can do that right now. So stay in touch with those people. You know, and continue to just enjoy the moments you have left. And hopefully when this all clears up you know, you can go back to Queens, you can enjoy, enjoy a drink at the bar and just enjoy life back on campus.
For those who have graduated in the last couple of years, what advice do you have for them?
My advice is if you don’t have your dream job right now, you have 50 years of your life yet to work before you retire Don’t worry about it. You’re still young. You still have a bright future ahead of you. And you know, you’re still going to be working for another 45 to 50 years. So give it some time and don’t stress if you don’t have that dream job right now, because it’s going to come as long as you work hard and you put yourself in the opportunities to get that job and to be in that career, you’ll get there. But don’t stress it right now.
Mike, thank you so much for jumping on with us. We really appreciate the time. And we look forward to the next big event in Rutgers Athletics.
Thank you for all you do for Rutgers
SAS '16
Chisa Egbelu SAS’16, is the founder and CEO of PEDUL, a scholarship marketplace for growing diversity in underrepresented fields. He has worked on “Morning Joe,” for Google, and the Eagleton Institute, the Big Ten Network, WRSU, RUTV, and was a contributing writer for Inc. Magazine. The following text has been edited for clarity and space; for the full interview see the video above.
Jordan Cohen: All right. Well, thank you so much everybody for joining us. Our guest today is Chisa Egbelu who is a Rutgers alumnus class of 2016. And in those five years, he has done amazing things. We’re proud to have him as our young alumni spotlight for April. Chisa you came from I believe, Louisiana.
Chisa Egbelu: Yessir.
Right. Ended up coming to Rutgers. Was involved in everything from the Eagleton Institute, WRSU, he was involved in being part of working with the big 10. He was involved with RUTV. And now he is actually the chairman and CEO of his own company, along with another Rutgers alumnus. So Chisa thank you so much for joining us.
Appreciate you, man. And I’ve got to give a shout out also to the Quidditch team that I was president of for two years. They got a special place in my heart. They don’t get enough credit out there. I’ve got to shout them out too.
That sport is a mixture of rugby, basketball,
You’re hip to it.
Full on wrestling, I believe. A little bit of track.
Yes. Oh, absolutely. That’s absolutely true.
Well Chisa thank you so much for joining us. You started off in Louisiana.
Yeah. Baton Rouge.
Tell us a little bit about how. Growing up and growing up in Baton Rouge and ended up at Rutgers.
Oh, sure. I mean, I loved growing up in Baton Rouge. I think Louisiana is probably the most unique state in America. One trip to New Orleans will prove that for you. I had a very eclectic experience there. Of course, I played football, was all district defensive MVP for an undefeated team. And I went to LSU lab school, right. It was a little bit of our own beautiful football factory. While I was in Baton Rouge, I got really involved in all types of things, being a logistics coordinator for a college readiness company and working with different students, helping them get to that next level, myself included. Raising our ACT and SAT scores and figuring out how to make things work. And so from there I started working with the mayor’s office on their youth advisory council, really got deeply involved, and that’s where I really started learning about the systemic things that take place that can move someone forward or backwards in their pursuits of educational obtainment. So yeah, I did that, had a great time and was very involved in high school.
We were in a capital and we were also on LSU campus. So there were a lot of interesting things that came too. But part of my experience there, I did feel as if it was very…not exactly diverse. Right? I felt like I was either on the white side of town or the black side of town unfortunately. And you know, that really drove what I was looking for in a college. I wanted to go to college where I felt everything is there and everyone is there and there’s opportunity for collaboration. And so you know, when I was visiting Rutgers, Rutgers is an incredible campus. I got there and I was walking around; I’m seeing everyone, and it felt like the work you put in can equal the work you put out, right? You put in hard work and you can see results. And honestly, that’s a unique feeling. It’s not a feeling that is universal by any means. So I fell in love with Rutgers from that perspective. And I love that it actually had a real campus. I wasn’t like NYU where you’re ashamed to wear anything that reps your school you know. There was a real campus, a real community. And not only that, Rutgers was able to have communities within communities. I loved the multitude of campuses that give you different auras, different energy, different vibes depending on what you’re looking for. And so for me, I actually first learned about Rutgers when I was in…Middle school. I think the woman’s basketball team was just on sports center. And I remember I was with my friend’s dad and I was like, ‘where’s Rutgers’ and he’s like ‘New Jersey’. And I was like, ‘wow, that seems so far away.’
And here you are.
Exactly, crazy how the world works.
And so that’s how you ended up seeing Rutgers and deciding to take the visit.
I mean, that was middle school. So, it just stayed in my head. And I was just looking at schools in the northeast and I saw Rutgers. My final account came down to NYU, Boston, U and Rutgers. And I fell in love with the Rutgers experience over all of them.
You came over to Rutgers. You’re a kid from Louisiana. You’re not playing football; you get here. Tell us about those first couple of weeks at school.
I actually got to school about a week and a half late because I was in a hurricane to start off September.
I felt I was playing catch up when I got there. Luckily for me, I did do a one week program, summer program at Rutgers before called leadership quest. It was in the back corner of Cook-Douglass and it really introduced me to the Rutgers experience and meeting students from all over the country that were also coming in.
So for me, when I finally got to school after being a week and a half late and missing a lot of the first fun stuff I got there and my floor, you know, they had already all met each other and I was trying to play catch up. But I caught up really quick and got acclimated and I felt I had a bit of a spoiled experience. And in a good way. Right? I felt I was spoiled because I was in the towers and there were just amazing people from all over the world because the towers are an international dorm.
We had our friends that were coming from Ridgefield, New Jersey and we had our friends that were coming from Russia and we had our friends aren’t coming from Virginia. And we had our friends that were coming from Vernon, Vernon, New Jersey. Right. So we just had such an amazing experience of all learning so much from each other.
Just, you know, even within New Jersey and it’s very easy to get siloed into your town or your, your region, your community, and you get the Rutgers. And it’s as if, the entire world pours into this five mile radius. You know what I mean? In that dorm, we all compiled into this.
Like one floor and we just became such a family. And those are still the people I talk to heavily today. I had an amazing experience, plus my roommate and I had the same birthday. I don’t know if that was on purpose, but it was a great way for us to come together.
That’s awesome. What were some of those most meaningful experiences? Beyond, you know, it sounds like your freshmen semester was incredible, which tower by the way,
Oh South tower, bro. Soto,
North tower is better.
No, sir.
We get better access to the buses.
But you don’t get the exercise running to the buses.
Alright, so it sounds like you had an amazing beginning. You did some really amazing things while you were at the school. Tell us a little bit about some of those meaningful experiences you had while you were a student.
Yeah. You know, so much of going to school and going to college at a place where people have all different views is that you just get exposed to so much. And that’s what helped me out. Right. I, it wasn’t until I was in my floor, just talking to people on other floors and meeting, I realized that, ‘Oh, there’s a radio station here.’
Okay, cool. Let me go to an intro meeting or even just, you know, it was my floor. We were the ones that first went to that first Quidditch practice. All right. And we’re thinking, ‘let’s just see what’s going on.’ And the ability to have a collective unit of individuals that are just willing to try new things that they’ve never done.
You know, one person says, ‘oh yeah, my grandma used to talk about this things’. Let’s go see what it’s about, you know? And so I was heavily involved in, in my floor dynamics, but also those are the people that I went and started playing quidditch with those are the people that you know, we went into our first meditation and yoga class together.
You know, I love to, you know, going out to College Ave together with them on those late nights and figuring out the world and it was an incredible experience for us where we developed our characters. I think that was also the first semester that the movie theater was open as well on Livi.
This is all just freshman year.
Yeah. That’s all just freshman year.
And then you ended up working with Eagleton.
Yeah.
WRSU, RUTV. I believe you ended up working for Morning Joe. Yeah. How, how did you start getting involved in there?
I went and asked them, how can I get involved? First you know when it came to RUTV you know what it was, I forgot the summer before I worked for RUTV. I wanted to be an orientation leader and then I thought I was going to have to, I thought I had to take classes over the summer. So I said, ‘I guess I can’t be an orientation leader.’
And then something fell through and I wasn’t going to take classes and It was too late for me to sign up for being an orientation leader. And so that summer, my friends became custodians and janitors for Rutgers on Bush campus for the entire summer.
And during that process, we lived on our off-campus house. We were doing. Everything from dorm room repair to janitor work, we were cleaning up entire dorms rearranging the furniture for incoming students. It was such a hard job. It was so hard. It’s a job that makes you be like, yeah, I’m definitely going to get my education.
Like I’m done. We did that. And at nighttime, we would hang out with the orientation leaders and stuff, the only other people that were really on campus. Right. And during that process, there was a girl that was orientation leader named Lauren, who was one of the managers at RUTV.
And, as we’re hanging out, she said, come right here. This is what are we doing? RUTVX, Y, Z. And she says, ‘Oh yeah, we actually have an opening. If you’re, if you’re available.’ And I was like, please, give me anything else to do. That’s how I like made my transition from like custodian on Bush campus to work over at RUTV on Bush campus.
That’s what sparked you into all these different media?
Yeah, I was already working in WRSU before that, you know, before that experience I didn’t know how to get to RUTV. I didn’t, I don’t know if I even knew it was there to be honest with you. But like the Rutgers way, you meet all these different people and you start talking to them and you learn about new things.
So I was working at the. The custodial spot during the daytime. And then like at afternoon, like when my shift would end, I’d go over to RUTV and work within programming. And then I was also working my radio show as well at the same time and WRSU. And what was your radio show? Rutgers Recess, number one show on station. Essentially it was, it was kind of an Elvis Duran in The Morning show, which is what ended up, you know, taking us in afterwards. We started off, it was kinda like a, maybe a 101.5 breakfast club, or we bring in these artists from all over the tri-state. We talk about pop culture. We talk about systemic issues and the educational system and ways to improve. We would bring up professors to talk. It was just funny, creative programming. We would do a little pranks on people that had been recorded and then play it on air. That’s the place where I was happiest on campus. And I was happy in a lot of places, but being in that studio, definitely, it was my happy place.
I want to circle back to this in a minute, but let’s talk for a minute about what you’re doing now. You started your own company in 2016, right?
Yep.
Tell us a little bit about it. Tell us about that process. Tell about what it is.
Sure. What Pedul is today, it’s a platform that helps corporations diversify their workforce with scholarships. And so that means that when we work with Viacom, CBS, or paramount pictures or Wiley or Oracle you know, they obviously can’t put up a job description for a woman developer, right. Or a Latino data scientist. But what we allow them to do is put up a scholarship for that exact same thing. And then we take that scholarship and use it as a vehicle. To source and recruit students from across the country that match their specific criteria. And so Wiley, they call us America’s number one, diversity act. We really ran with that. And Wiley’s the oldest publishing company in the country. They started 1807 almost as old as Rutgers.
We’ll let them try. They are older than the RAA, so we’ll give them that.
That’s fair. That’s fair. So, yeah, so we that’s the company we have now. We’re based out of Newark. Actually we went over right over from New Brunswick and we’re actually based out of the Rutgers business school on the seventh floor there. Yeah, that was the company that we started as students. And we, you know, what we were doing is we would just meet at the Livi student center every Sunday morning at 10:00 AM. And we would stay and work on things until 6:00 PM, just learning how to code working on business plans, et cetera. And it just came out of a need. You know, we saw that school was getting more and more expensive and we’re thinking, “how can we. Get these large corporations to invest in the students that are, that need it the most?”
It sounds like you were on a track for a lot of multimedia between the radio TV Morning Joe, you on a track for all these different things. And then you kind of switched focus real quick and really laser-focused on to this. Was that a conscious decision or…
I think it was just about going about the opportunities that are presented to you at Rutgers. You know? I wouldn’t even say I switched focus as much. I just use my skillset. For other means, right? Because the journalism, it all helped me so much just to be able to ask the right questions and, you know, being at Eagleton when you’re dealing with polling and you’re dealing with questions for, for a living I, I learned very quickly how to find the right answers to be able to do whatever you want to do.
So we asked a lot of questions when building a company and we built what we wanted to, but before that, Pedal. I was involved with another company called Chakara foods at Rutgers. Just a bunch of us got together and built a company for this competition called the Hult prize that we ended up winning at Rutgers and then we were regional finalists in Boston. That was just a company that a group of my friends and I made together. And that was like my first foray into starting a company and utilizing my journalism skillset to expand it. It just transitioned organically. And you know, with the company, you have to do a lot of talking like this but you have to write it and produce a lot of videos, scripts and everything in between. I met my co-founder in journalism class. It still really helped me out. I think that we have a huge opportunity. This morning, I just got off of a call. It was a pilot call and, you know they’re writing a pilot based on our company right now for a TV show. So I had to use a lot of what I learned at school and within productions that you’d be able to have like the proper input to build that.
That’s awesome. What are some lessons you learned at Rutgers that you use in that day to day?
That everyone knows something that you don’t. You learn how to respect different opinions at Rutgers because you will just be shocked over and over again about someone who Is experiencing something that you’ve never even thought of.
And you learn about them and their background and you learn to make it make sense. And you learn that having different opinions can create a product, a process, or a result that is just going to benefit more people. I think that I also learned that you can, you know, jump off the ledge. And I mean that in the best of ways, right? Take chances. It’s okay to not know, Rutgers will teach you that. It’s okay to not know. And for me it took the fear out of the process. Right? You don’t have to be scared because there’s a lot more in that. The other side of fear.
I love it. Absolutely love it. And is that the kind of advice you would give to new graduates and to some current students, is that the advice you would give or is there something more?
You know, I would say don’t let your fear hold you back. Most of your hesitation is fear-based. You know, you’re at a place where you can try new things and try not to let the fear, the hesitation holds you back and. Really analyze a situation so you can get those new opportunities to shift how you think about certain topics; to shift how you want to attack.
Do it yourself and making it work. And then you always have your Rutgers community to lean on to, to find out new things. That’s always been helpful, right? Getting to talk to someone. This morning I was talking to this venture capitalist that is based in San Francisco, randomly is from Andover, New Jersey, and went to Rutgers class of ’02. So it’s beautiful that you get to lean into this community and lean into this network in all types of fields to learn from them. I’ve never reached out to someone from RU and they slapped the opportunity out of my hand. They’re always saying, “all right, let’s talk.”
What do you have planned for the future?
I think we’re going to scale this company up. We’re really looking to target that hundred million dollar revenue point and really bounce from there. And then from there, I think there’s a lot that we still want to do, even in regards to maybe stepping into investing. I know I want to do a lot more within media and that scope and stepping more into my creative process in general. I loved this morning going through that pilot and figuring out how the directors are going to take it. And I think I would do more of that.
What’s your biggest point of pride as a Scarlet night?
I think it’s for me, probably Cap & Skull. That’s something I was really proud of getting inducted into. It doesn’t mean that anyone that didn’t get inducted into it, that it is a detriment to any sort of your character or anything like that. But, you know, I know that some of my best friends came out of that community. And even how I met you, Jordan was through someone that was in Cap & Skull.
Anthony Covington
Yeah. So he’s, you know, one of my predecessors in Cap & Skull that I also met in a class that our professor was another member of Cap & Skull from like the eighties. So, you know, I, I was really honored to get tapped into that society and, you know, follow in the footsteps of Paul Robeson and other awesome individuals.
Chisa, thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you so much for this, we’re so glad to have you as our young alumni spotlight and we hope you’ll stay involved in the RAA, Great things are ahead.
Thank you!
SAS '18
Megan Coyne, SAS’18 Is the Social Media Manager for the Office of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. The following text has been edited for clarity and space; for the full interview see the video above.
What brought you to Rutgers in the first place?
Just growing up in New Jersey. everyone knows Rutgers, but I have two older siblings who both went to Rutgers. So when I was applying to schools, it was a no brainer that I would also go there. I applied to maybe two other schools, but I really wanted to go to Rutgers. I wanted to be a part of a big school. I love New Jersey. I didn’t want to leave and it all worked out.
Did you see your two siblings there? They both went to Rutgers, when did they graduate?
My sister graduated in 2015, my brother graduated in 2017 and I have a younger sister who’s a senior at Rutgers now. Then I have a younger brother in high school, who will hopefully be going there within the next few years.
So you were all there at the same time?
I overlapped with my older brother and my younger sister, which was fun.
Was there some avoiding in the dining hall or did you eat together? Which way did it go?
Yeah, me and my younger sister spent a lot of time together, we actually took a class together, which was fun. It confused our professor because he couldn’t comprehend that we weren’t twins, that we are siblings. That was fun.
Was that one of the more meaningful experiences at Rutgers? Tell us a little bit about kind of things you did.
It was fun to have a class with my sister, but most of my time at Rutgers was spent with the Rutgers Democrats. I joined that in the beginning of my freshman year. And then that kind of changed me; it kind of helped me get to this moment. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do when I went to Rutgers. But I was really interested in politics. So I joined the Rutgers Democrat’s Club, joined the board, and that’s how I started meeting all these candidates and elected officials and people who work in politics in New Jersey. Then that’s how I got involved with Phil Murphy’s campaign and then I interned on that. Then I just stuck with it. I interned when he became Governor in the Governor’s office. When I graduated I luckily got a job there. But yes, it’s awesome.
Were you politically active before you joined Rutgers?
Not really. I was interested in it in high school, but there wasn’t really a way to get involved at my high school. So it was just a personal thing that I kept up with. And then at Rutgers, it really took off.
You were also a part of Eagleton; was that something you joined because of the Democrats Club or was it something separate?
When I was a freshman, I took a Byrne seminar with Ruth Mandel, who was the director of Eagleton and I really, really admired her. Then my sophomore year, I was her research assistant. So I was involved in Eagleton since the beginning of college. So then when there was time to apply junior year for the undergraduate associates’ program and it seemed kind of a no brainer that I would apply, especially since it was obviously something I was interested in. I applied and luckily I was accepted. And then I was a part of that for a year and a half, which was a really interesting experience.
Can you tell us about it?
The program has 25 students and I think all three Rutgers campuses can apply, but my year it was actually just New Brunswick students. Your fall semester of your senior year. It’s an internship seminar. Everyone has to do an internship over the summer. And then you talk about what everyone’s internship was. There’s also a lot of really cool guest speakers and one of the best parts of the program is how it connects you to other people throughout New Jersey and I was really lucky because my best friends were in the class with me. It was a really great experience.
You worked with Dr Mandel; she escaped the Holocaust, was a legend in politics and political research, both at Rutgers and beyond. What was that like?
It was a really rewarding experience. She was just such an inspiring figure, but she really, she really pushed me especially as her research assistant to go further and to go after what I wanted. She really pushed me to get involved in politics, because I was a little bit on the fence about it. But she always encouraged me and she was really, really great to be around.
What do you think you took away most from that internship and working with her?
Hmmm…I guess to just not be afraid to go after what you want.
The importance of empathy is something that I really learned at Rutgers. And I think that that comes into my everyday work; understanding where people are coming from and what they’re going through. Respecting that and trying to help them.
In that vein, tell us a little bit of what you’re doing now. It was profiled by the (New York) Times, but give us a little bit of an idea.
I work for Governor Phil Murphy on his communications team as a digital assistant. [Editor’s note: As of publishing, Megan is now the Governor’s Social Media Manager.]
His communications team is split into three. There’s speech writing, press, and digital. For digital we do all the social media, all of the websites, all of the multimedia stuff. It’s actually just a team of three of us. It’s our digital director Pearl, our deputy digital director Edwin, and then me. Edwin is our photographer so he’s always out with the governor photographing him, taking videos of him and then Pearl and I work together a lot on the writing for the accounts and the uploading of content to them.
We manage three accounts. The Governor’s account, the First Lady’s account and the State of New Jersey account. When Governor Murphy took office there were no social media accounts for the Governor or for the State. Pearl and Edwin created the accounts from scratch and built them up. And one thing that Pearl created was the State of New Jersey Twitter account and it always had this little bit of a personality, but she couldn’t dedicate as much time as she wanted to it because she was managing all these other accounts.
When I came in in June 2019 we started having all these conversations about how we could make the state of New Jersey accounts more creative, more relatable, and more authentic to New Jersey’s identity because obviously as a state we have a very distinct sort of personality. We decided to start doing it so the post started getting progressively weirder and then there were few that really took off, that got our name on the map.
The most famous of course was last December, someone tweeted at us “who let New Jersey have a Twitter account” and we responded, “your mom” and it got 500,000 likes. That’s when people really started to pay attention to us. And then after that, that was it. There was really no turning back. And that’s when we started capturing everyone’s attention.
Do you have a personal favorite?
Well, it’s really hard. There was one last October. That was one of our first weird ones that I’m pretty proud of, and it was “Imagine pumping your own gas” with all these emojis of people throwing up the idea of pumping your own gas is so horrific to New Jersey that it physically makes you ill. So that’s one I was really proud of, of course, “your mom” it’s the gold standard. So that one will always have a special place in my heart.
And then we’ve had a lot of interesting ones during the pandemic, that I’m proud of because it’s public health messaging in a different creative way that connects with people.
So we’ve done the sheriff of wash your hands, which is an emoji sheriff made out of soap and then we did this whole series of “stay X feet apart”. Right. So instead of saying 6 feet apart. It was stay one Bruce Springsteen apart because he’s just about six feet. Or stay one Bon Jovi apart, stay 20 bagels apart, so that was fun. I’m pretty proud of those
Did your team come up with that on your own?
It’s mostly me and Pearl and our personalities mesh really well. We work really well together. We bounce ideas off each other all the time. It’s been harder since I’m doing it from home, when we were in the office. We sat next to each other. So we were divided by this flimsy cubicle wall. We would just talk over that all day, or I would just go sit in her cubicle a lot. It’s definitely been a little bit difficult to adjust.
Now we’re in the ninth month of doing this so I guess we’ve adjusted. We’re both Jersey girls. Both born here, grew up here, have lived here forever. So we understand the ethos of the state really well, and both love the state. I think that that genuine love for New Jersey really shines through and helps make the account so successful.
“What I found most valuable during my time at Rutgers was that in such a big diverse school, it really opens your eyes to so many different experiences and viewpoints. I think that really shaped my belief in the importance of public service…”
I think one of the things I was really interested in is, you know, we’re heading into month nine of the pandemic. I think I left my office on the 17th of March. What’s the difference, if you’re talking social media now vs social media a year ago? With the election, with everything, how does that inform what you’re doing?
Well, I think it exposes the importance of social media. It’s so important for connecting with people and providing people with these real time spur of the moment updates. We’ve seen our social media channels across the Governor, the First Lady. the state of New Jersey grow rapidly during the last few months. It’s been such an unsure time that people really need, depend on, and are eager for information from a reliable source in real time on what’s happening, what resources are available, what the rules are and what are the best safety tips. We’ve definitely been leaning more heavily on it than what you’ve seen in the past. I write way more social posts today than I was a year ago at this point. But I know how important it is to people, so it’s all worth it to us
Obviously running those different accounts, you have to make sure the tones are separate. I assume there would be a tiff if Governor Murphy responded to Andrew Cuomo with “your mom.” How do you keep those separate?
Yes. As you said, each account has its own tone. So obviously the State of New Jersey embodies this sarcastic,bold and weird kind of voice, and then the Governor’s account really embodies his voice. When you work for someone you kind of learn how they talk. So the governor really is very funny. Obviously, he would never Tweet “your mom”, but he does have a sense of humor. And so he does enjoy doing funny or weird posts once in a while.
We’ve done a few memes on his account. He really likes when we can make a joke. He loves to do that a few times on his account. And a few times on NJ Gov. We’d started fights about what state has the best pizza, which is obviously New Jersey and then other states have gotten involved. Then the Governor will get involved and then he’s gone back and forth a few times with Governors Cuomo and Lamont about what state has the best pizza and it’s all in good fun and it reflects his voice.
Here’s a question. I understand if you can’t reveal it; does the governor ever tweet from his own account?
He reviews and approves everything that goes out on his account. And then, yeah, sometimes he has ideas and he’ll send them to us and we’ll work on them with him, but everything that’s on his account, he signed off on so nothing goes out on his account that he doesn’t see.
You were involved with politics a little bit at Rutgers. Now obviously you’re involved in how things go on the actual working side of it and you’ve done a little bit of campaigning. How do you feel your experiences at Rutgers inform what you’re doing now?
Being at Rutgers led me to this. I think that while I was at Rutgers I got these internships or jobs, but a lot of what I found most valuable during my time at Rutgers was that in such a big diverse school, it really opens your eyes to so many different experiences and viewpoints. I think that really shaped my belief in the importance of public service and it definitely shaped my political views on what we can do to make the city and the country and the world a better place for people. Definitely being at Rutgers opened my eyes to that, especially compared to where I grew up, the university community was just such a stark difference. It really, really helped me decide that, this is what I wanted to be involved in.
Are there any specific lessons at Rutgers that you learned that you know come into your day to day?
That’s a good question. I don’t know, The importance of empathy is something that I really learned at Rutgers. And I think that that comes into my everyday work; understanding where people are coming from and what they’re going through. Respecting that and trying to help them.
I asked you this before and I just wanted to get it recorded. Where did baby Yoda come from on the New Jersey government accounts?
It came from last year when baby Yoda became a thing. I guess it was actually just about a year ago, right? Baby Yoda became a thing and it was all over the internet.
So I went into work one morning and I was asking Pearl if she had seen the baby Yoda meme yet. So we are looking at it together and we are meditating on what would be a good NJ gov baby Yoda meme. And then the next day Pearl came in and she had been listening to an old song that’s has a line in it “Luke Skywalkin on these haters.” So she heard it, and then she thought of baby Yoda. She came in and we photoshopped baby Yoda holding New Jersey, and then we posted it with the lyrics “Luke Skywalkin on these haters”, and it just took off, people loved it. So we decided that it should be our profile picture. We changed it to that.
And then a few months ago, we tried to change it to something else. We really didn’t want to change it to something else. Because we couldn’t think of anything better. But a lot of people were telling us that we needed to change it. So we changed it. And then there was an enormous backlash. People were so upset that we took baby Yoda away. So we changed it back. It was up for less than 15 minutes, the new picture. So we changed it back to baby Yoda and then a few weeks ago Pearl designed a new version with Baby Yoda wearing a Santa hat and holding a Christmas tree and there’s a menorah and Diwali lights and all this stuff for the holiday season.
What’s the next big thing for NJGov?
I don’t know. So many of our ideas on NJGov just come to us in real time. That’s kind of, I think, why the account does so well is that it feels authentic. That’s because me and Pearl, if we have an idea we’re passionate about, we just go with it. We don’t really plan things out in advance. We don’t harp on things too long because then I feel things get bogged down. And we just like to really live in the moment on that account. So I don’t know. It depends, tomorrow, we could wake up and there could be a brand-new meme on the internet and then NJGov will put its own spin on it. And that could be the next big thing.
That’s awesome. I do love the sunset pictures, by the way.
New Jerseyans love their sunset pictures.
When did that become a thing?
Since the account started people have been tagging us in their photos. And then when the account really took off, we started getting tagged and a lot more. Then I think since we started sharing them a lot more people post more since we’re sharing them. Then we made a meme about it a few months ago, it’s a photo and it was “nobody”. And then it was New Jerseyans every evening, and it was a photo of a sunset and then next to the photo of Danny Devito holding a cell phone. So that one did really well. We are proud of that.
You’ve just graduated, two years out. What advice do you have for other young alumni and soon to be graduated students?
I guess we just see that it’s a weird time to be a recent graduate. It’s a weird time to be graduating and so just go with your gut in all situations. Rutgers prepares you well, not only in an academic sense but Rutgers prepares you really well for the real world. And I think that those sort of skills will help you get very far. I think that Rutgers grads all do very well for themselves. And I think that everyone should have that sort of confidence in themselves.
How do you plan to stay involved with Rutgers?
Through the alumni committees, the young alumni committee. My first year I don’t think I was very good about that. But now that I have some more time, I can get more involved. I definitely want to do one of those Rutgers mentoring programs for students who are interested in politics and government.
And what’s your biggest point of pride as a scarlet knight?
My biggest point of pride…I would say that my biggest point of pride right now definitely has to be how integral Rutgers has been in the fight against coronavirus with the rapid tests that we developed pretty early on that was just absolutely remarkable. And I think that state schools in general don’t get the credit they deserve. I know Rutgers doesn’t get the credit it deserves. And it’s such an incredible institution with some of the smartest people. And I think people are starting to realize that, and that makes me really happy.
We appreciate the opportunity to have you as our spotlight and we look forward to the next big meme!
Thank you so much for having me!
SAS '15, Rutgers Board of Trustees
Anthony Covington, SAS’15, is a senior consultant at Deloitte, a trustee on the Rutgers Board of Trustees, a global shaper with the World Economic Forum, and a member of the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International affairs. The following text has been edited for clarity and space; for the full interview see the video below.
What brought you to Rutgers the first place?
I am born and raised in New Jersey. I come from a town called Bordentown in South Jersey, or Central depending on how you see New Jersey or if you consider there to be a Central Jersey. I am one of those believers; there’s a true Central Jersey. For me I was really looking for a place that I could grow. Rutgers actually wasn’t at the top of my list but when I was in high school I was a volunteer firefighter and I was really looking for programs that could expand that kind of community involvement. Rutgers is one of the few universities in the country that has a full-fledged fire department and I would love to say that was my primary reason but additionally I come from a modest background and our family didn’t have a lot of money. Rutgers presented a great return on investment. I was fortunate enough to receive a lot of scholarships and Rutgers fit the package and I tell you it’s been probably one of the best decisions of my life. I am really, really happy that I’m a Scarlet Knight!
That’s awesome; I was looking at your resume and before you even graduated from Rutgers you were already working with Chris Christie; you were working in politics. Is that something that was always part of the plan or something you fell into?
Community involvement is so important to me. I would not be the man I am today without members of my community and my family, to support me and from that I kind of got into politics. When I was in high school I started a group, of politically engaged students and we just talked about things….it wasn’t necessarily Democrat versus Republican, it was really just to engage students and from that I was invited to go to something called Boys State. In New Jersey it’s held every year at Rider university. You create a 51st fictitious state based on the state that you live in and ours happened to be New Jersey and I was fortunate enough to be elected governor there against a thousand others.
Cut throat.
Yeah, but it opened my eyes up to a lot of things. Most importantly, the value of your vote and your voice. So from there I knew I really wanted to get more involved in politics. The opportunity opened up to be a constituent liaison at the governor’s office. For me at that time and still I wasn’t Democrat or Republican but I really wanted to make sure I could engage in my community. I thought doing constituent relations was a beautiful way to understand the needs of the community. When I came to Rutgers I had all these thoughts but then Rutgers just took it to the next level; it really became a platform for me to expand on the opportunities that I had and really what I thought I could do in New Jersey or just in general for myself.
What are some of the most meaningful experiences you had as a Rutgers student?
I will say my involvement in the Educational Opportunity Fund, being a firefighter on campus, being involved in student government and then last, serving on the Board of Trustees for Rutgers. When I came in I came in through the EOF program.. For people that don’t know about EOF. it’s a program that gives people that are highly motivated and intelligent but maybe lack financial backing the extra funding needed to attend a university like Rutgers. So when I got there I came in with a cohort of a couple hundred students and that was kind of my first opportunity to engage in new student voices and there I was elected as the freshman representative for the EOF class. I joined something called EOFSA which is the student government side of EOF and that really led me into RUSA. (Rutgers University Student Assembly) and involved in participating in student government. That position really propelled me to use my voice. It’s one thing to think about issues and policies; it’s another to actually advocate for them and I think that was my first opportunity to do so. Going into my sophomore year, EOF was in danger of being cut for funding by two million dollars and that was something which really struck a chord with me. I felt students like myself or separated by a zip code or just lacking a couple hundred dollars to go to school could potentially lose the opportunity to go to Rutgers. That was something that not only is it near and dear to my heart but I just felt it was wrong. I wanted to do everything I could so I helped lead a letter writing campaign to the governor’s office and to the education committee in Trenton. Thankfully funding was restored and we didn’t lose any funding that year….So from EOF into student government I really came to understand how policies were created, and what was the mindset of students. I was elected as a university at large senator; I got to participate in so many conversations and really pushed agendas forward that I think really represented students. That ultimately led into my junior year; being appointed and unanimously confirmed by the Board of Trustees to be one of the youngest student charter trustee members. That was eight years ago and it was just an incredible experience because that took me from merely a student to taking all that input that I had as a student and really advocating for them at the university administrative level. I tell you that was something I could never dream of. I couldn’t plan for it but it has been a platform for me to really advocate for students in the best way I know how.
It sounds like you’ve been a little busy; any notable items some Rutgers alumni or students would know about?
The merger with Robert Wood Johnson is a big one. I was a part of the fight to save Rutgers Camden. That was a big controversy; it seemed people in South Jersey had a different idea for what Rutgers Camden should be and I’m very proud and happy to say that we were able to work with legislators and other people within the community to prove that Rutgers Camden belongs with Rutgers and so that’s probably one of my shining moments. More recently though, the merger of the Big Ten. I think we all love Big Ten football and we just got our first win of the season over Michigan State so let’s go Scarlet Knights. I’m really excited about that. I was watching it from my couch and I wish I could be there in person. People try to doubt Rutgers or count us out but we got the first W and that’s all that matters.
This interview is going to go up in a couple of weeks so hopefully this ages well.
Absolutely. And we’re the ones that talked about it first right?
Right!
So absolutely the Big Ten merger and most notably the bringing in of the new President Holloway. He’s an outstanding individual, happy that he’s leading the ship; happy that I get to work with him and really help chart the next course for Rutgers in this new generation. The last bit, more recent is Rutgers Scarlet Promise Grants. That is something the board unanimously adopted to take on as one of our initiatives. We have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to that and some board members have donated hundreds of thousand dollars of their own money. When President Holloway first joined the board he made a personal financial commitment and to me that program is signifies everything that stands for Rutgers. It’s to give opportunity for people like myself and others to continue to go to school, to stay in school, and to graduate because if it’s one thing that Rutgers does, we take care of our own. I’m really proud to stand behind that program and really happy to see it touching so many people.
Let’s transition a little bit over to what you’re doing now. You’re a consultant with Deloitte. What’s the role you’re in now?
My junior year I had an opportunity to go into phone banking to work in the previous administration under President Obama and I jumped at the opportunity to work in that administration and to learn so much. It was actually also the first time I ever went to DC and working in DC I fell in love with the culture of the area. What I mean by that is its diversity not necessarily the political arena or its contention there but I think DC is a melting pot. You will meet so many different, communities, cultures. That is something that I was attracted to, hence why I live there but that’s where I learned about Deloitte. Before that I didn’t even know what consulting firms were or what they did and so I had an opportunity to join the Rutgers consulting club my senior year. I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to work at Deloitte five years ago and now I’m a senior consultant leading teams in technology consulting. My portfolio covers education, healthcare, technology and defense work. It’s been it’s been an amazing ride and one of the things I also get the pleasure of actively recruiting Rutgers students so I come to campus from time to time. Before Covid of course, not only for board meetings but to recruit and bring some of the best and brightest of Rutgers to Deloitte. Outstanding program and I can’t talk about it enough
How have your Rutgers experiences informed the work you’re doing?
How to consensus build is the major thing that I learned. One of the things I don’t talk about a lot but I’m extremely humbled by and proud of is my involvement in Cap and Skull. Can and Skull is a senior honor society that selects 18 members a year and I was fortunate enough to be selected in my senior year. Those relationships and some of the things that we talked about in terms of agreeing while still disagreeing and pushing issues is something that has stuck with me through my time at Deloitte. I realize that you’re not always going to be right but if you can come to some common ground you’ll get farther than you were before. If you start looking at people for their similarities instead of their differences you’re going to be able to see each other much better than you could before. That goes to the next point about the experiences at Rutgers I feel like you can be two types of people. You can be just a number that fades away, because it is a big campus, a big university, or you can be someone where you grab it by the horns and you make your experience what you want of it. At Deloitte it’s similar where we have this philosophy: You lead and you build your own career. It is so true and it’s the lessons of being independent and resourceful and knowing how to consensus build and getting the opinion of others that really propelled me in my thinking.
You get out what you put in.
Yes absolutely. I’ve always felt that was one of the best parts of Rutgers. You can go in and you can get a degree or you can go in and you can really do something special. With what’s available [at Rutgers] there is no single path to success.
“Never give up. Don’t take no for an answer if you’re pursuing something that you truly believe in.”
What do you plan for the future? What’s next?
I’m in a search to go back to grad school and I will tell anyone; I’ve been out of school for five years and it is incredibly hard. I’m trying to connect with people but also trying to find time for my personal well-being and mental health and then also studying it it’s extremely taxing along with the other organizations I’m involved in in DC. I quite frequently feel that my time is slim and there’s not enough time in a day to get everything done. Ultimately I want to be in public service whatever that may be. If it’s holding office, if it’s serving on the board of education. For me service work is so important and I think that’s why when I joined Deloitte I specifically joined our public sector practice where we focus on local governments, education or the federal agencies. For me I wanted to do something where I give back and here I get to serve agencies or school districts or what have you that is benefiting actual people and that’s something that’s always stuck with me. I know that if I keep my eyes open and keep looking for opportunities and finding ways to serve that hopefully I’ll find it.
How do you stay involved with your fellow alumni? Last month’s honoree of this spotlight is Yousef Saleh, you’ve mentioned he is a classmate of yours. How do you stay involved with other folks from Rutgers that you were friends with when you were a student?
Yousef is also a Cap and Skull member so we talk. Not as frequently as I would like, but we try to keep in touch. How I stay connected; you just find time if it’s important to you then you make the time for it. I say Rutgers takes about 25% of my day every day. No matter what it’s about, if it’s for alumni engagement work or if it’s something with the foundation, Rutgers African American Alumni alliance; if there’s something that Rutgers needs I’m sure I can give my time. For being connected to people I think it’s just staying present. I have a core group of friends that are in DC from Rutgers that I interact with constantly. My fraternity on campus I try to go back there once a year if not more. With the pandemic things have been hard so it’s a lot of phone calls. I’m not going to say I’m the perfect person with following up but what I can say is that I’m going to work as hard as I can. Relationships matter and my friends, colleagues. they have impacted me and through my experience and I don’t want to forget that.
“That’s why I do what I do. Because I want to help others get to the same position or even higher than I have.”
What’s your biggest point of pride as a scarlet knight?
Probably Dance Marathon; every year they continue to break the record but when I was there I volunteered and participated and we had the record for fundraising that year. To me, going to such causes like that just highlights why Rutgers is so great: its people and its commitments.
You mentioned there’s more that you’re involved in now besides your job and besides Rutgers. What are some other things that you’re involved in? You mentioned you worked with Obama. Tell us a little about that.
When I worked in the previous administration; I worked in the constituent relations section of the former administration. It was taking what I’ve already done on a local scale, where I formally worked for Senator Cory Booker and Bob Menendez. Taking that to the federal level and really trying to engage with constituents around the country. Understanding their needs and really trying to find ways the federal government could help and pitch in. Now more than ever our country is in pain. We’re hurting; hundreds of thousands of people have died because of this virus and I think understanding the pain points and what’s going on in a community level in a town or a city is so important. That role really allowed me to do that and now since I’m always looking for more things to do and put more things on my plate for some reason, I recently joined The Global Shapers which is a program founded by the World Economic Forum. It’s a group of highly motivated young people under the age of 30 that come together to support programs within their local community. I serve as the diversity and equity inclusion officer for the global shapers of DC. I tell you there’s never enough time in the day but things like this always matter and I will always try to find time because they’re usually impacting people that were a young Anthony 10 or 15 years ago. As I said in the beginning of this interview I would not be the man I am today without the support from my mom, from my community members, and from my friends. That’s why I do what I do. Because I want to help others get to the same position or even higher than I have.
Last question. I think we’ve kind of touched on this throughout the whole conversation but what kind of advice do you have for young alumni, recent graduates, or students that are going to be graduating this year? Especially in the light of everything that’s going on this year, what advice would you have based on your experiences?
Never give up. Don’t take no for an answer if you’re pursuing something that you truly believe in. That’s not saying just never take no for an answer but if you’re passionate about something? Go after it and get it. Rutgers has given you all the tools that you could ever need and you’re going to learn many more things outside of Rutgers but that foundation that Rutgers will give you if you take up the opportunity? It has everything you need. So believe in yourself first and foremost, help others, support your friends, your colleagues, your teammates. Whoever is listening or watching this, it may be ten years that you’ve been removed from the university, it may be five and maybe four. I know we’re talking to young alumni here but no matter how old you are and how many years ago you graduated does not mean that Rutgers doesn’t need your help doesn’t need your support. You can always get more involved in Rutgers, you can always give back and come back and I think this interview and these types of series is a testament that Rutgers cares about its own and we want to take care of our own.
Anthony, thank you so much for taking the time. We wish you the best of luck and we hope to have you at some of our events in the future!
Thank you so much, I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you and to tell my story. I can’t wait for more events after covid. Thank you for providing this platform for people like myself to engage with other Rutgers students and alumni. I hope to see more young alumni featured on this program and hear the incredible work that they’re doing.
SAS’11, NLAW’15
Yousef Saleh, SAS’11, NLAW’15 holds the distinction of being one of the youngest Jersey City councilmen. A former Rutgers University Student Assembly President, Yousef says, “There’s so much we have to take care of and I feel like this is the time right now. Even though it’s not the most convenient time for me to be an official of city government, with the pandemic and with the global economic recession and the civil unrest, I would say Rutgers has trained me very well to deal with this.” Whether it was finding resources for students as a Residential Assistant (RA), or budgeting for hundreds of student groups in the student assembly, his Rutgers experiences directly inform how he serves the citizens of Jersey City.
A self-described “loyal Rutgers boy through and through,” Yousef spent his undergraduate years doing a little bit of everything on campus. When he wasn’t mentoring as an RA or running student government, he was serving as a community service officer, volunteering with service clubs, and DJing on student radio. Across all his experiences, he credits the diversity on campus as one of the most valuable parts of being a student at Rutgers.
Swelling with pride, Yousef talked of Rutgers’ continued research clout when talking about the COVID-19 rapid test. “We beat out the Ivy Leagues,” he says. And for undergraduate education? “I believe it’s better, because we are that state school, because we have that grit. You know we don’t take anything for granted. As good of an education as you can get anywhere at any Ivy at any school across the us and I believe it’s better.”
Yousef credits his home town of Jersey City with instilling his tenacity, but he says Rutgers helped him aim his passion. “Rutgers was the one that took me to new heights,” Yousef declares. “It really is the pathway to opportunity. If you’re trying to build a better life for yourself and the next generation, Rutgers really is the key. The network you build there, the people you meet there, the things you do there….it will make you a better individual.”
As for staying involved? Yousef stays involved with the Rutgers Law New York City Chapter, and mentoring Rutgers students. Yousef says he’s always open to lending a helping hand.
SAS '14 GSE '15
Yousef Saleh, SAS’11, NLAW’15 holds the distinction of being one of the youngest Jersey City councilmen. A former Rutgers University Student Assembly President, Yousef says, “There’s so much we have to take care of and I feel like this is the time right now. Even though it’s not the most convenient time for me to be an official of city government, with the pandemic and with the global economic recession and the civil unrest, I would say Rutgers has trained me very well to deal with this.” Whether it was finding resources for students as a Residential Assistant (RA), or budgeting for hundreds of student groups in the student assembly, his Rutgers experiences directly inform how he serves the citizens of Jersey City.
A self-described “loyal Rutgers boy through and through,” Yousef spent his undergraduate years doing a little bit of everything on campus. When he wasn’t mentoring as an RA or running student government, he was serving as a community service officer, volunteering with service clubs, and DJing on student radio. Across all his experiences, he credits the diversity on campus as one of the most valuable parts of being a student at Rutgers.
Swelling with pride, Yousef talked of Rutgers’ continued research clout when talking about the COVID-19 rapid test. “We beat out the Ivy Leagues,” he says. And for undergraduate education? “I believe it’s better, because we are that state school, because we have that grit. You know we don’t take anything for granted. As good of an education as you can get anywhere at any Ivy at any school across the us and I believe it’s better.”
Yousef credits his home town of Jersey City with instilling his tenacity, but he says Rutgers helped him aim his passion. “Rutgers was the one that took me to new heights,” Yousef declares. “It really is the pathway to opportunity. If you’re trying to build a better life for yourself and the next generation, Rutgers really is the key. The network you build there, the people you meet there, the things you do there….it will make you a better individual.”
As for staying involved? Yousef stays involved with the Rutgers Law New York City Chapter, and mentoring Rutgers students. Yousef says he’s always open to lending a helping hand.
SAS '14
Heading into the NFL football season, this month’s Young Alumni Spotlight features Terrell Barnes, a School of Arts and Sciences graduate from 2014. A member of Chi Psi Fraternity, Terrell is part of a long tradition of Scarlet Knights in the NFL, and he does it from the sidelines as a key member of the Minnesota Vikings logistical staff.
Terrell transferred into Rutgers from DeVry University and is living out his lifelong dream of being an equipment manager in the NFL. It is a position he obtained through hard nosed effort and a little bit of luck. The hard work part was all grind. “I started working for Rutgers football while I was at Devry” he says, and did everything he could for the program. “A typical day for me in college would be to wake up at 5, get ready for the day, 6 o’clock leave to get into work….video, recruiting, ops, and definitely my bread and butter was equipment managing” After six hours of work, when everything was set up for practice, he would get on the bus, take his classes, and spend the evening with his fraternity or attend a fraternity event. This would then be followed by working his night job at The Olive Branch until “2-3 in the morning, and then start the day over again.” This was the hard nosed effort but the luck he needed to get to his current position took a little bit of fraternity networking, and a very fortuitous haircut.
“Make friends, not connections…when I talk to people I want to be their friend more than I want to be a connection, and then that pays off over time.”
“One of my [fraternity] brothers knew the Wilfs. His grandfather was the barber for the Wilf family….I gave him my resume and he gave it to his grandfather and then he gave it to Zygi [Wilf, co-owner of the Vikings] and then two months later I get a phone call saying, ‘hey we want to interview you for a full season.’” Terrell’s advice for a student looking to network in college? “Make friends, not connections…when I talk to people I want to be their friend more than I want to be a connection, and then that pays off over time.”
The grind didn’t end in college. Terrell still gets to work around the same time, and spends the day, dawn to dusk, working through a laundry list of tasks from actual laundry and mending of equipment (clothes, uniforms, pads), to setting up the field, handling vendors, and participating in practice. Whether it’s running routes, throwing balls, or putting the logistics together for a road trip, the work doesn’t stop.
He appreciates the opportunity to be friends with the players of the Vikings too. “They’re friends, they’re people. They have regular conversations like everybody else.” As for how Terrell stays connected to his friends and fellow alumni, even with a punishing schedule and a pandemic? He keeps it simple. “I usually call them…my fraternity brothers I talk to on a daily basis. If they don’t respond I know they’re busy, but they always respond later and that’s ok with me.”
And a final word of advice? “Don’t settle for anything less than what you are. Know your worth. Be who you are, and people will gravitate towards you.”
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