Scarlet Service: Empowering Students Through Civic Action

This past summer, 141 students worked alongside state and national policymakers, monitored the health of our waterways, assisted veterans and others reentering civilian society and made a difference in many other ways through Scarlet Service. 

Now in its fifth year, the program establishes civic engagement as a critical component of higher education and forges a path toward appreciating each other’s differences, restoring civil discourse and serving the common good. Since its inception in 2021, Scarlet Service has supported more than 600 Rutgers students and partnered with more than 150 employers across New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

This year, for the second time, Scarlet Service incorporated civic field trips into its summer schedule, bringing students to local, county, and state government sites across New Jersey in partnership with the Rutgers Democracy Lab and the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

These excursions, designed to promote civic engagement and enhance understanding of local and state government, allowed students to learn more about career opportunities in government. 

Meet the interns:

Tiffany Flax
Office of Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman

Public service has shaped much of Tiffany Flax’s life.

From teaching Sunday school to organizing food drives for veterans as the first president of East Brunswick High School’s Black Student Union, Flax entered Rutgers-New Brunswick with a clear purpose.

“Serving and supporting my community has always grounded me,” said the Rutgers junior, who is majoring in political science and English with plans to pursue public policy or law. “Having that urge to do more—and not just repost things on social media—is something that’s carried me through high school and college.”

Flax, 21, is driven by a desire to ensure other underserved communities also have a seat at the table. That commitment to create meaningful change led her to Washington, D.C., through the Rutgers Scarlet Service Internship Program. There, she spent the summer working in the office of Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman— who made history in 2015 as the first Black woman to represent New Jersey in Congress and is serving her final term before retiring in 2027.

“Her being the first Black woman to represent not just New Jersey, but specifically my home district, held a lot of weight for me because I’ve seen how exclusionary Congress can be,” Flax said. “She is big on repping New Jersey through and through and making sure every community—especially marginalized ones—is at the forefront of her work.”

As a legislative intern, Flax tackled high-level policy work alongside her peers, reading and summarizing Supreme Court rulings, including the landmark decision upholding birthright citizenship. With Watson Coleman focusing on her final legislative priorities, she tasked her interns with researching and proposing bills aligned with her platform for potential co-sponsorship.

The hands-on experience on Capitol Hill built directly on the foundation Flax established at Rutgers, where she served as a policy research intern at the New Jersey State Policy Lab and as Environmental Justice Chair for the Rutgers NAACP.

“Being part of student organizations, organizing spaces, and coalition building is so important,” she said. “It’s been inspiring to see that same work happening on a federal level in a formal setting.”

While Flax has long been focused on a career in public advocacy, she admitted that working in the nation's capital felt out of reach—until Scarlet Service bridged the gap. Now in its third year in D.C., the program provides students with a stipend and fully funded housing, allowing them to live and learn alongside fellow interns from Rutgers and across the country.

“Having this internship in D.C. makes a career here feel tangible and within reach,” Flax said. “Being financially able to be here demystifies the process. Scarlet Service has been an essential key to getting us into these rooms and spaces so we can start building the foundation for our careers.”

— Lisa Intrabartola

Isabella Perry
New Jersey Reentry Corporation

Isabella Perry was planning a career in the criminal justice field with the goal of improving the system from within. When she envisioned her future, she saw herself becoming a law enforcement official—possibly a detective or an FBI agent.

After spending her summer as a Scarlet Service intern, she now sees herself as an attorney.

“Leading up to this internship, I’ve had an interest in the law, but I was a little intimidated,” said the 21-year-old Perry, who is entering her senior year this fall at Rutgers-Camden School of Arts and Sciences. “After this internship, I’ve made up my mind. I’m definitely going to go to law school.”

Perry interned at the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, a nonprofit that helps war veterans as well as those leaving incarceration or rehab programs to readjust and rebuild their lives. The organization, which has several locations throughout the state, guides participants as they navigate the legal system, find employment, housing and medical care, helps them obtain proper documentation like restoring a driver’s license or getting a Social Security card. 

The internship appealed to Perry, who faced her own hardships and challenges growing up, because it was an opportunity to work at an organization that was more than  a support services agency—it is an advocacy program. 

“I often describe the Reentry Corporation as the bridge between the justice system and the general society,” said Perry, who is also part of the Honors College at Rutgers-Camden. “I think being that bridge for people who never had that advocate or that resource has been impactful for me.”

When she was 6 years old, she was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary, repetitive movements and vocalizations. She said she was bullied at school and had to learn to manage her symptoms. 

“I know firsthand how it feels to be ostracized and have no one to advocate for you, other than yourself,” she wrote in her Scarlet Service application. “These experiences – the stares, the assumptions, the mistreatments—all taught me resiliency and importance of advocacy.”

Perry said she often shared her own story with the program’s participants to show them that proper guidance, they’re able to start anew. She eventually got the care that she needed, including adopting a service dog. Apollo, a 7-year-old labradoodle who accompanies her on the Rutgers campus, has been with Perry since high school and will likely walk the stage with her as she receives her degree.

As a criminal justice major, Perry said she had learned much about delinquency or why people commit crime, but she wants to focus on preventing people from re-entering the system.

“I was more interested in how we can prevent someone from getting into a life of crime or how can we deter people from crime,” she said. “We can’t build a safer community unless we help individuals get back on their feet, to deter them from crime, to deter them from recidivism.”

Perry said now that she can sees bigger possibilities for herself, she pictures herself as a defense attorney

“Later on in my career, I would love the chance not only to defend people but hear them out and advocate for them,” she said.

— Roya Rafei

Endurance Laryea
Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership

Sani Saeed
U.S. Department of the Interior

Even before his back-to-back experiences as a Scarlet Service intern, the thought of working in the public service sector appealed to Sani Saeed as a way to honor his parents

Saeed, a child of immigrants, is intimately familiar with his parents’ American story of leaving political turmoil and economic hardship in their country for opportunities in the U.S.

“I see America as a nation of people who live for those ideals, and I want to be a part of that,” said Saeed, whose parents emigrated from Pakistan decades ago. “I see the best way of giving back to the country that let my parents in and let them have better lives is through public service.”

After interning last summer at the New Jersey Attorney General’s office in Newark and this summer at the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., Saeed said he can now envision a specific career path. 

“I want to go to law school and use my legal education to advocate for the things I believe in,” said Saeed, who will start his senior year this fall at Rutgers-New Brunswick School of Arts and Sciences, double-majoring in political science and history.  “I want to get into law enforcement – and I don’t mean like a police officer, but more law enforcement as a way to investigate people and institutions, civil rights abuses and discrimination.” 

Saeed, 21, of Piscataway, N.J., got a taste of that kind of work last summer when he was part of the investigative team in the Division of Civil Rights in the Attorney General’s office as it was building a case against a police department for alleged discriminatory practices. He looked at data, organized the information, and wrote the list of questions for the investigators as they conducted their interviews with witnesses.

“That inspired me to apply to RSSDC,” he said. "I wanted to go to Washington and see what the federal public service looks like.”

This summer, Saeed was assigned to work at the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the agency within the Department of the Interior that regulates the offshore energy industry. His duties were twofold. First, he was tasked with crafting and sending compliance letters and notices to businesses that operate the oil and gas platforms offshore. 

The second part of his internship was to help integrate that agency with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to create the Marine Minerals Administration, as mandated by the Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. 

Through his two internships, Saeed said he has learned that working in the public sector ultimately means serving the American people. Politicians come and go, and the parties change hands, but that’s how you learn the will of the people.

“Whatever their will is, that’s expressed through their elected representatives,” Saeed said. “So they follow orders, they follow mandates and directives because, at the end of the day, that’s their job. Those are the people I wanted to work with – dedicated public servants.”

— Roya Rafei

Santiago Mosquera
New Brunswick Free Public Library's 
English Language Program

Each time Santiago Mosquera tutored an English language learner this summer, he was reminded of his mother.

“When we moved here from Peru, my mother was in one of these programs,” said Mosquera, 21. “I saw it help her. I wanted to do the same thing for others.”

The rising senior accomplished his goal as one of two Scarlet Service interns working with the New Brunswick Free Public Library’s free English Language Program this June and July. For Mosquera, who moved from South America to Newark seven years ago, connecting with a new community is a familiar challenge. Back then, he turned to numbers when faced with language barriers.

“Math was an opportunity for me to connect with others without speaking the language well,” said Mosquera, a math and economics major and data studies minor at Rutgers-New Brunswick’s Honors College. During the academic year, he channels that passion into volunteering through the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program Peer Tutor program.

But this summer, his focus has shifted from equations to English. Working with mostly Latino students in the library’s English for Beginners program and immigrants of all nationalities in the English Conversation Café gives him a sense of satisfaction. He knows firsthand how these interactions help students gain the confidence they need to better communicate with friends, family, employers, and their children’s teachers.

Balancing that rewarding work with a second summer internship – not affiliated with Scarlet Service – crunching numbers required some juggling. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, Mosquera pulled double duty, working at New Jersey’s Department of the Treasury in the Office of Economic Analysis from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., hopping on a train to New Brunswick to tutor at the library from 5 to 8:30 p.m. On his "off" days Mosquera took two summer courses and studied for his actuary exams.

The relentless pace was worth it, he said. Together, his Scarlet Service tuition remission, treasury paychecks, and financial aid covered the cost of his tuition this summer and part of the fall. But the true return on his investment is the impact he sees with the students he tutors.

“I like spending time with people and seeing their progression,” Mosquera said. “It’s a little different teaching English instead of math. It’s been even more rewarding because this is something they live with in their everyday lives. It opens possibilities and job opportunities, and gives them a sense of security.”

– Lisa Intrabartola

 Rania Ragoub, Alice Merolli and Joey Reyes 
EdTrust