June 18, 2025

by Lauren Ferguson

When Andrea Oliver ‘26 enrolled in Ramapo College of New Jersey, the graduate student who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community found somewhere to belong.

“Just being able to sit and meet people very easily hadn’t been a thing previously,” they said of their life before coming to Ramapo. But on Ramapo’s welcoming, inclusive campus, that all changed.

“You get to sit in the Women’s Center and LGBTQ+ Center and meet people and a solid percentage of them are queer. It’s just a safe space to kind of exist,” they explained.

Oliver, a Master of Social Work (MSW) student who commutes from Hawthorne, NJ, spent their first year at Ramapo interning for the college’s Women’s Center and LGBTQ+ Services, where they helped run events and discussion groups on LGBTQ+ topics. The discussion groups are broken down for different identities, such as trans folks, women, men, queer people in general, and queer people who are neurodivergent, they explained.

“There’s a ton of different options for people to just find people who have similar experiences, who want to be open and talk and make friends,” they said. The Women’s Center and LGBTQ+ Services also runs events such as trivia to help people meet each other, they said.

The college recently held a ceremony to declare June as Pride Month and read the institution’s official Pride Month proclamation. Oliver said holding such a ceremony feels supportive, and it feels even more supportive that the college chooses to celebrate Queer and Trans History Month with Pride Fest in October – when more students are on campus.

“Even though most folks aren’t here during the month of June, we’re finding another time to celebrate the queer community and all the people who make it up, and that feels a lot more meaningful than anything,” they said.

Oliver, who studied psychology as an undergraduate, originally planned to become a therapist. Then after doing some one-on-one counseling, they realized their calling was to work with larger groups and communities to make “systemic and larger changes.”

Through Ramapo’s MSW program, there are “absolutely opportunities for people like me who want to go into community and larger scale work,” they said.

During their second year of the MSW program, Oliver will be interning at Edge NJ, which they described as “the biggest LGBTQ+ center in New Jersey, period.”

The Parsippany-based organization provides specialized and affirming care for youth and adults within the LGBTQIA+ community. It holds support groups and social activities, and through the organization, individuals and families can access services critical to improving family relations and addressing behavioral health concerns. Oliver will be doing community outreach and education for the organization.

“I am very excited to start working with them,” Oliver said.

Oliver hopes to have a long career working with queer people. And they are well on their way.