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Washington, D.C. --- Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) will welcome Sharo M. Atmeh of Fair Lawn, a senior political science and journalism major at Rutgers, to Capitol Hill on Tuesday night to attend President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address. Atmeh’s collegiate career exemplifies the critical role of need-based assistance in making higher education accessible to deserving students who may not otherwise have the opportunity to attend college.
“I am delighted to welcome Sharo M. Atmeh to Washington, D.C.,” said Rep. Holt. “His remarkable academic and leadership accomplishments are proof positive that our higher education system and our society at large are strengthened immeasurably when qualified and motivated students are given the opportunity to succeed. The House of Representatives recently cut in half the student loan interest rate, but our work in making higher education accessible and affordable is just beginning.”
Atmeh knows the value of need-based student aid. He owes his education at Rutgers College to scholarships, grants, federal student loans and Work-Study jobs that made it possible for him to attend. A student activist and campus leader throughout his college career, Atmeh will head to Cambridge, Mass., next fall to pursue a joint degree in law and public policy at Harvard.
“I feel that education and the adequate funding of education is the only way that New Jersey and the nation can continue to progress faster than our competitor nations across the globe,” Atmeh said.
“It is an amazing honor to attend an event that the entire country and the entire world will be watching. I have political aspirations for my future and I hope to one day be able to sponsor a student like Congressman Holt is doing for me today.”
Atmeh is the student representative to the Rutgers Board of Trustees, parliamentarian for the Rutgers College Governing Association, and a student member of the University Senate. As president of the Rutgers Educational Opportunity (EOF) Program Student Association, he lobbied successfully for an increase in grant monies for Rutgers’ neediest students. He also served as chairman of the Rutgers University Legislative Affairs committee and executive director of the “Casualties of the Cuts” campaign to advocate against cuts to higher education.
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