Roshard Williams, a second year MPP student at the Bloustein School, has been selected as a 2017 APPAM Equity & Inclusion Student Fellowship Recipient.

Roshard is an alumnus of the University of South Florida, where he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology and was a member of the men’s track and field team, a resident assistant for USF Housing and Residential Education, and served on the Athletics Council and Student Academic Integrity Commitee. At the Bloustein School, his research interests focus on social and urban policy, particularly as it relates to education, incarceration, and social welfare programs.

This past summer, he was a financial justice fellow at New Jersey Citizen Action, where he examined issues related to the Community Reinvestment Act, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student loan debt, and predatory payday lending.  He serves as the Rutgers Graduate Student Association representative for the Rutgers Association of Policy and Planning Students, is a member of the Council of Black Graduates and a volunteer/facilitator for the Black Men’s Excellence Mentoring Institute at the university. He was recently chosen as one of 11 Bloustein School graduate students for the 2018 Eagleton Institute of Policy Graduate Fellowship Program.

The fellowship was created in 2016 in an effort to encourage participation by underrepresented students in APPAM and its activities by the Policy Council and APPAM’s Diversity Committee. The goal of this fellowship program is to introduce recipients to the world of public policy and APPAM, and foster a lifelong affiliation and engagement with both. It supports the travel and participation of students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to the 2017 APPAM Fall Research Conference, November 2 – 4, in Chicago, IL.

While at the conference, fellowship recipients will have the opportunity to formally network with each other and with members of the Policy Council and Diversity Committee at a Fellowship Luncheon, recognizing them, their accomplishments and their futures. They will also have opportunities to informally network with other students and engage in mentoring activities with professionals during the conference.

Due to the success of the program, the number of fellowships was increased to 33 for 2017. Fellowships were awarded to 25 recipients in 2016. Roshard is the second Bloustein School student to be selected; in 2016 Thalya Reyes, an MPP/MCRP ’18 candidate, was a member of the inaugural fellowship class.