Vineland native Sarah Filippi-Field has earned a prestigious scholarship to pursue abroad a master’s degree, which she hopes to use to help her community in the future.
Filippi-Field, a urban studies and community development graduate from Rutgers University–Camden, is one of only 120 awardees nationwide to receive the German Academic Exchange Service scholarship and will pursue a master of public policy degree at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt.
The Vineland resident has served as a program assistant for the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers–Camden for the past four years. She recently presented a data analysis on drug and alcohol use to the Vineland-based Southwest Council Project to help the group determine the greatest needs and focuses of their programs.
On the policy side, she said she was instrumental in helping to pass an ordinance in Millville prohibiting tobacco use on certain city properties.
Filippi-Field said the confluence of her studies, work, and civic engagement experience has given her “the force to make an impact in South Jersey.”
She said she looks forward to earning her master’s degree in the hopes of helping practitioners and academics in South Jersey “bridge the disconnect between theory and practice.”
Bill to expand eligibility for NJ STARS passes Legislature
A bill to clarify eligibility in one of New Jersey’s most popular scholarship programs has passed both houses and is awaiting the governor’s signature.
The legislation sponsored by Sen. Linda Greenstein would expand the existing NJ STARS and NJSTARS II scholarships to be given to students enrolled part-time and taking no less than six credits.
“The NJ STARS and NJ STARS II programs have helped thousands of part-time students receive an affordable education,” said Greenstein (D-Mercer/Middlesex). “Expanding this to incoming freshman who may feel overwhelmed during their transition to college-level education will ensure they have the ability to recharge, if needed, and give their academics their full effort.”
NJ STARS is the first state-sponsored scholarship program exclusively for New Jersey residents that cover the cost of tuition at New Jersey’s 19 community colleges. The NJ Stars II program is a continuation of the NJ STARS program that provides successful NJ STARS students at New Jersey county colleges with funding to transfer to a New Jersey four-year college or university to earn a bachelor’s degree.
A 2017 law allowed students in the program to take fewer credits due to a physical and, or, mental health condition or the verification of the recent death of a parent or spouse.
New Jersey high school students who graduate in the top 15% of their high school class may be eligible for NJ STARS.
Bill to be introduced to all ow military sashes at graduation
Two state assemblymen are drafting legislation to require school districts to allow students entering the military after high school to wear sashes during graduation ceremonies.
Assemblymen Edward H. “Ned’ Thomson and Ryan Peters announced the bill in response to a Point Pleasant Borough High School graduate who was told he could not wear a sash indicating he had joined the U.S. Marines at a recent graduation ceremony.
“Young men and women who choose to serve our country should be lauded for their decision to join our armed forces,” said Thomson (R-Monmouth).
The bill would require schools to establish graduation policies that would let students joining a military branch wear official articles such as a sash that denotes the branch in which they enlisted.
“Every year, I go to local high schools to honor students entering the military, and it really makes a difference when we show our support,” said Peters (R-Burlington), a former Navy SEAL who currently serves as a lieutenant commander for SEAL Team 18 in the Naval Reserve.
Some school districts, like Egg Harbor Township, offer color-coded cords for graduates who are entering the military to wear during the ceremony.
Cape Tech student film selected by PBS NewsHour
A film by Cape May County Technical High School students in the Communication Arts Technology program was selected by the Student Reporting Labs (SRL) to be published online and aired on local PBS station and the PBS NewsHour nightly broadcasts.
The Cape Tech film, The Great Backyard Bird Count, presents a citizen science project where individuals count all the species of birds in the local area during a designated time period. Juniors Kimberly Diaz and Aidan Myers produced the film with instruction from Christopher Jones, a communication arts technology teacher. To view the film, visit studentreportinglabs.org.
Rowan awarded second $3.4 million grant for Arctic research
Rowan University was awarded a second $3.4 million from the U.S. Department of Defense for its Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems (CREATES) to provide support for U.S. Army initiatives in the Arctic and other cold regions.
The grant doubles the original $3.4 million from the DoD awarded nine months ago to CREATES for the project “Innovative Construction Materials to Protect National Security Interests in the Arctic Region.” The two DoD grants are the largest to date ever presented to a faculty member on Rowan’s Glassboro campus.
