Student Earns Nationwide Honor, To Speak At NJ Graduation

CINNAMINSON, NJ — A political science and public policy student from South Jersey earned two major distinctions in honor of her accomplishments at Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah.

Sarah Glisson, just days after being named a commencement speaker for the Class of 2026 along with radio personality Don La Greca, received the first Truman Scholar award in school history.

This nationwide honor recognizes the top students in the United States with a scholarship for aspiring public service leaders and was narrowed down from a pool of 781 to just 55.

More than 300 colleges and universities nationwide nominated candidates for the prestigious accolade.

"This moment is bigger than me, and it's bigger than Ramapo College," GIisson said.

Ramapo and Princeton University are the only two New Jersey schools to have Truman Scholars for 2026.

"When you start local, looking into your hometown, your school district, your county, and state," Glisson told Patch, "you start to see a level of government that impacts a lot more of your daily life than one may realize."

Congress began the program in 1975 as a living memorial to President Harry S. Truman. The Scholarship supports future public service endeavors through funding for graduate study, leadership development, and access to a nationwide group of policymakers.

Sarah is one of only 3,673 Truman Scholars to have received the award over the 51 years.

"Sarah's selection as Ramapo College's first Truman Scholar is an extraordinary achievement and a proud moment for our entire community," said Cindy Jebb, President of Ramapo College.

The path to public service through her studies began in year one at Ramapo, when Glisson walked into the "New Jersey Policy Issues" course.

This first year was also monumental for her in that it led to the community engagement event that has meant the most to her up until this point.

"I was introduced to the Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering college students to register to vote and engage with American democracy," said Glisson.

The Foundation commemorates "Freedom Summer," the project that called on volunteers to help register African-Americans to vote in 1964.

On the first day that activist Andrew Goodman arrived in Mississippi, he and two others were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.

Through an interactive display open to the public for the 60th anniversary in 2024, Glisson and her classmates were able to showcase Goodman's original application to volunteer in the grassroots movement, conduct a protest pin-making station, host a table where visitors can try to pass a Louisiana literacy test, and, her favorite part, a screening of an interview she worked on with Civil Rights activist Robert Masters.

Along with championing multiple civic programming initiatives at Ramapo, what followed was an internship with a State Senator, a spot on the Dean's List each academic period, and multiple leadership roles across other campus organizations.

On Thursday, Glisson will also receive the Outstanding Leadership by a Senior Student honor at the 2026 Student Leadership Awards ceremony.

She will then address her fellow classmates on May 14 at the Prudential Center in Newark before heading off to begin an internship with the government relations office at Virtua Health this summer and later pursue a law school degree.

Wherever the future may take her, Sarah says her roots will never be too far behind for the girl who grew up going to the Maple Shade Custard Stand to celebrate achievements with a cup or a cone before later moving to Cinnaminson in 2018.

"I told my parents they owe me a custard for winning the Truman Scholarship!" she added.

On the road before dessert, you may very well find her at "Passariellos" in Moorestown or "Bagelati" in Cinnaminson.

"To represent Cinnaminson is to represent the loving home that I was raised in, where my two sisters and I were taught to be strong women who never questioned our potential," said Glisson.

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