Honoring Her Roots, Making Her Mark: First-Gen student adds Fulbright to impressive list of awards just before graduating from Ramapo College

May 21, 2025

by Lauren Ferguson

By the time Stefanie Viera was in kindergarten, she knew she would earn her college degree – even though no one else in her family had graduated from college. 

“My parents, they have been great in the sense that I never once questioned that I was going to go to college or even grad school. It was always a given,” said Viera, who grew up in New Milford, NJ, surrounded by an immigrant community. 

She said her mother Shirlie – “a strong, independent woman” who works a corporate job – and father Ray – a salsa singer-songwriter and producer who traveled the world as the lead singer for Salsa-legend Johnny Pacheco’s band – consistently told her and her two sisters to “do what you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” 

But it wasn’t until her freshman honors global awareness class at Ramapo College of New Jersey, that Viera knew what that was and saw a clear path to her future.

“It was that class that made me realize the career path I wanted to pursue – advocating for migrant communities through policy,” said Viera, who graduated in May with a perfect 4.0 GPA in both of her majors, history and humanities and global studies, after just three years at Ramapo. 

Impressively, she won a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to serve as an English teaching assistant in Colombia for the 2025-2026 year, but turned it down in favor of another exciting opportunity as a New York City Urban Fellow – a highly competitive nine-month fellowship where she will attend seminars and meet leaders in the policy field. Viera is the first student at Ramapo College to be awarded this fellowship. She was also accepted into Georgetown University’s Master of Arts in International Migration and Refugees program, and sees herself attending after completing the fellowship.

At Commencement, Viera led the School of Humanities and Global Studies as a member of the Honor Guard, composed of graduates selected by their respective school deans for their scholarship and contributions to Ramapo College. She carried the school’s gonfalon during Arching, the most storied tradition on campus, during which students process under the iconic Havemeyer Arch in their caps and gowns closing the chapter of their time earning their degrees.

Viera ’25 leads graduates in the School of Humanities & Global Studies alongside Dean Susan Hangen at Arching.

Viera has earned a number of impressive accolades during her college career, including a slew of scholarships and fellowships, such as the ELLA Fellowship, and inductions into numerous honor societies. She was awarded the New Jersey Governor’s Hispanic Fellowship in 2024, and was named a finalist for the extremely competitive Truman scholarship. Viera has earned hands-on internships at organizations such as the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, Patrick’s Kids Foundation, Immigration and American Citizenship Organization, International Rescue Committee, and American Red Cross, and even started a mentorship program for disadvantaged youth to expose them to college.

“She has this combination of a solid footing in the humanities and experience in doing all of these applied initiatives and internships really aimed at changing the world through community engagement,” said Dr. Susan Hangen, Dean of the School of Humanities and Global Studies at Ramapo, who called Viera “a really special person.” 

Back in Viera’s freshman honors class, Dr. Rebecca Root, professor of political science and international studies, asked her students to research a region of the world. Viera chose to focus on the Venezuelan refugee crisis, and said she was “immediately so fascinated by it.” 

The following summer, while the crisis raged and buses of asylum seekers were driven from Texas to New York, Viera interned at the American Red Cross in Manhattan, and every day watched as a line of people with suitcases formed outside her building seeking support.

“It just lit a fire underneath me, seeing that in real life,” said Viera.

Now she is set on making the way in which migration is handled in the western hemisphere more progressive. She wants to use policy to better prepare for migration challenges caused by climate change, poverty and wars.

Viera ‘25, holding her 2025 Pillar Award, stands with her mentor Dr. Rebecca Root, who spoke about Viera at the Student Leadership Awards ceremony in May.

Viera said, being a first-generation student, the support and exposure to opportunities that her Ramapo professors provided to her has been key. “The Ramapo support system has been so integral because if it wasn’t for that, I don’t even know that I would have discovered my interest in refugees, let alone would be on the path to pursuing a career in that field,” she said.

She has always been “very sensitive and empathetic” to immigrant communities, because she grew up surrounded by one, she said.

Her father is Puerto Rican. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Colombia, after which her grandfather formed a successful construction company, and she has other family members who are immigrants as well. 

“Growing up in that cultural enclave always made me very hyper-aware of how immigration is such a key part of American culture, and just the American experience,” she said.

She also said her parents have instilled in her and her sisters that they are deserving. They taught them, “You put in the hard work, it will come back to you,” she said. 

Viera said her whole family was so proud of her older sister when she was the first in the family to earn a college degree a few years ago – but there wasn’t room to invite many people to her graduation. 

When Viera accepted her diploma on May 15, her family that dreamed big with her all along, was there to cheer her on. 

Viera leaves a legacy of impressive accomplishments and undoubtedly will continue to make big and bold impacts in the next chapter of her journey.