Welcome to our series to give you a glimpse into Rowan University, our campus culture, and the lives of our students, while we’re practicing social distancing to protect society from the spread of COVID-19. Today’s story is from Elizabeth Madden, a junior isolating in her house in Monmouth County, NJ. Elizabeth is an early childhood education major with a focus on literacy studies. She who normally lives off campus during the school year, in a house with her sorority sisters.
When I heard that my sorority was creating a new position called mental health chair, I knew immediately that it was something I would like to be a part of. The executive board created this position to really highlight the importance of mental health in college and promoting resources that are available to us currently and beyond our college experience to ensure that we get the most of those.
Personally I wanted this position because I have struggled myself with mental health and have seen those around me struggle and get lost in the “college world” and wanted to help them out while also navigating the same struggles together. My goals for this new position are to raise awareness on campus and within our own sisterhood to help everyone get more informed on mental health and to stop some of the stigma that comes along with those words.
Some of the activities I had planned were unfortunately not able to happen due to the coronavirus outbreak. I had wanted my sorority to get involved with the Out of the Darkness walk on campus through the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I have gone to this walk since I was a freshman at Rowan, and noticed that Greek life was not heavily involved and thought that should change. I planned to host tables and fundraising events for this and also have our chapter go to the walk.
Next I planned to hold peer support groups in which I planned to schedule a library room before our chapter meeting and just hold an open one hour space where my sisters could come and talk about stressors in their life or their current anxieties they were having. I thought this would be a good idea because talking it out sometimes helps and makes you realize you’re not alone and a lot of people surrounding you are having these same feelings as you. This would give hope and an outlet.
I also planned to host a speaker, my mom, who is in the mental health field. She was going to come talk to the chapter and inform us on mental health and some of her healthy coping mechanisms she uses and teaches to her clients.
Lastly I was going to give away once a month or so, a mental health basket. In this basket was going to be coloring books and pens, an essential oil diffuser, stress putty and just simple de-stressors that can help calm them and refocus them in a time of uncertainty.
I hope that I can implement these next semester and come up with even more ideas on how to help my chapter and even the campus.
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I was born into this unique hobby thanks to my grandfather. He was not only a musician, but for 32 years he served the needs of the Ferko String Band in a multitude of various positions including President, member of the Board of Directors, and as Ferko’s Delegate to the String Band Association. The String Band Judging Booth has been named in his honor since 2016. 
In October of last year I sat down with my public relations advisor, Lori Block, to discuss class registration. I did not expect this very routine meeting to land me a full-time job. 
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how the operations are completed was an awesome experience. Being able to contact engineers and operators who are working at this plant to ask them questions and learn from their experiences has been a great experience for my future.
Coming into Rowan University, her intro business courses were super general and informative, which allowed her to explore marketing and supply chain logistics in a more in-depth manner. This helped her decide where she wanted to be within those fields. Currently, she works at Rowan University’s Business Hall. This past summer, she worked in a recruiting agency in Parsippany, NJ, which she found through 
Erin is a part of University Innovation Fellows, a Stanford University run program where students are recommended by their university business or engineering professors to get involved in. She was one of the four students chosen from Rowan to join the program. The four students are tasked to find a problem with the university and attempt to fix it by getting funding. Erin chose to focus on solving the hunger problem at Rowan. She devised a plan in which students can donate their meal swipes to other students in need. This is in its beginning stages, and if it passes, the group will be sent out to Stanford in the spring and go to Google’s Headquarters to present.
been consistent over the decades, whether it comes to talking about healthcare he’s been pushing for Medicare for all these years. He was on the right side of civil rights, which is something we can not say for other candidates. He has been pushing for $15 an hour wage, that’s something he has been pushing for years … He is not only pushing for these things in Congress but he is actually doing them right now.
I volunteered a lot in high school, too. I was in Key Club, so I did a lot of volunteering then and I wanted to continue here. I was a leader this year because I loved it so much my freshman year. I wanted to do it again and have a positive impact on the incoming first-year students, because that was really important to me.”
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(Mercer County), is charging through college in the 
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Every year entering students (freshmen and transfers) who have registered for the program arrive early on-campus for the Fall semester and participate in group activities run by Rowan’s staff members and upper-class student leaders.
This year there were four student leaders and they all had to work together in planning different types of activities for the participants to do during their free time. “We put together a scavenger hunt and some games,” she said.
Being a student leader has taught Rose to work along with other fellow leaders, bounce off ideas from one another and how to make plans in a group where everyone agrees.
Gaspare is a transfer student from 
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Alyssa will become the first doctor in her family; both her parents chose different careers outside of the medical field. “I really want to become a doctor, so I liked how it [the TBS major] kind of had a built-in premed track. I want to be a pediatrician,” she said.
Kasey took classes in children’s and adolescent literature that helped her to prepare for her summer role. “I reached out to my professors and told them, ‘The books I read in your classes are in my curriculum — thank you! Your choices applied to my life in a way I was not expecting.’”
From Hackettstown, NJ (Warren County), Kasey stayed in South Jersey this summer solely to complete this internship. With she and her parents’ lacking familiarity with Camden — only knowing what they’ve seen on the news — at first Kasey’s parents had some trepidation about their daughter teaching in the city. “My dad is nervous about everything,” Kasey says. “But, the school was nice. The location was fine. I wasn’t nervous and the drive wasn’t bad at all.
Through RIPPAC, Jason applied for the Rick Rosenberg Junior Memorial Scholarship, which allows students to take unpaid political internships. Most political internships are unpaid, meaning that most students can’t afford to take these important experiences. Through the generosity of the Rosenberg family, students who are awarded the scholarship are provided with the financial cushion that will allow them to further their careers.
affordability. Although, once here Joseph quickly realized that the professors were another strength Rowan held. “The professors are all extremely accessible,” Joseph continues, “and they make themselves available beyond what I would consider their duty.”
cases involving children at risk of abuse or being cared for by unfit parents. “Through working here I have the opportunity to see the behind the scenes action; being a part of the process that most people aren’t witnesses to.” Joseph explains, “Gaining this experience further prepared me for more intense and involved work.” Through Joseph’s hard work and assistance from his professors at Rowan he gets to be a real help to children who aren’t in the best situations.
associated with cancer treatments and compare them to the cost of transitioning to more environmental-friendly methods. Overall, Joseph clearly has a mindset a strong ambition to make the world a better place for everyone to live in.
Around the time she discovered the article, Jo was part of a class called New Ventures Development, where students expand on an idea for a potential startup business or product, and experience the process of bringing it to life. “In that class, I came up with the concept of a personal filtration system within a water bottle, called RefresH2O,” Jo says. “Wherever you are – hiking, spending time outdoors – you can scoop up water from a nearby body of water, and it will be filtered fresh. This will alleviate our plastic usage, and make us wiser about how we source our water.” Another class, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, helped Jo finalize the marketing plan and details for her product, including the target market and purpose. “I wanted to make a product that even a three year old could use. Everyone needs clean water — it’s a human right, but not everyone is lucky enough to have that,” she explains.
Her future plans include owning her own environmentally sustainable holdings or manufacturing company, and possibly even attending graduate school for a degree in engineering management, to continue to grow. She advises freshmen coming into the field to not let the idea of ‘perfection’ interfere with your goals. “‘Good’ is good enough; just get your name and idea out in the world and continue to work on your idea as you progress,” she says. “And keep track of your commitments! Juggling school work, being on the track team and my internship, senior year has been the most challenging year yet, but planning it all out and prioritizing made it a lot better.”
During her first computer science course on campus, Monica learned the ins and outs of the industry, as well as coding and communication skills that she would use later on. Her first professor in the field, Professor Chia Chien, “has been a huge help throughout my college experience. She really encouraged me and opened my eyes to great opportunities.” Professor Chien even introduced her to her current resume-builder, as a co-op worker for the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC). Through the AFMS (ASRC Federal Mission Solutions) program with the Rowan computer science department, students can partake in a real-life work environment and contribute to meaningful projects that improve their skills. “The program allows students to immerse themselves in a real job, full time, with the option to take classes part time, at night or online,” Monica explains. “You partner with industry companies and really learn how they function and how your knowledge can contribute.” 
The students — Kailey Bertelson (advertising), Brittany Eng (public relations, advertising), Megan Jean (studio art), Timothy Stanford (advertising), and Hannah Vendetta (public relations, advertising) — spent many long nights and weekends in the Public Relations & Advertising High Street building on campus, developing their campaign for BOXED, an e-commerce store and app that provides customers the convenience of purchasing household items in bulk online, and shipping to their door for an affordable price. The group’s winning campaign ran with the slogan “Two Day Shipping, More Two Day Weekends,” and included the optional addition of a video advertisement, featuring Hannah as a busy mom trying to balance maintaining a household and spending quality time with her kids. The judges loved the creativity and detail of the campaign, awarding the group, nicknamed “The Incredible Bulk,” first place and a cash prize of $2,000 to split!
“My Intro to PR and Advertising Research class prepared me the most for this challenge. A massive portion of the proposal was gathering the information that we needed, both secondary and primary,” Tim says. Brittany agrees that learning the techniques for research ahead of time in class definitely helped advance their campaign. “Our skills in media, design, research and writing are a result of our professors’ dedication towards bringing out the best qualities in their students,” she says. When the results were gathered and interpreted, Megan took the next step of designing their display: “I took everything that I learned from my graphic design professors to help put together the design. Once we had gathered all of our information it came down to getting it laid out to make it visually pleasing to the viewer,” she says.
And while knowledge and experience from classes definitely helped fuel the winning project, working together also helped each member of the group strengthen skills that they had not practiced before. Brittany admits that she came into the competition with little experience in research, but was confident that the competition would enhance her abilities in a real-world scenario — and it did! “Now I have experience creating and analyzing the results of a national scale survey,” she says, which is a major accomplishment for a college student. 
Luis Acevedo, sophomore dual biology and chemistry major from Camden, NJ, originally entered Rowan as an education major. Luis wanted to teach the people in his community about mobilization – something that is a challenge for many from the city. After a semester into his education career, Luis kept his promise to educate his community, but felt he would be able to make a bigger impact educating them on physical health. He rediscovered his passion for the field of medicine, and is eager to apply his passion at home. 
education career and the mentors who’ve built a family full of support at school. After an interview with Dr. Mateo for Rowan’s 
holds a negative stereotype for fostering an adverse community. “A lot of people think we’re not prepared for college. The fact that people ask questions about the type of education I had is unreal. It’s important to inform people that we’re all the same and we were all accepted to the same university.” Luis takes advantage of his resources at Rowan, knowing these connections will prepare him to be a successful doctor. 
