September 1, 2026

by Lauren Ferguson

Before their first semester at Ramapo College of New Jersey even began, an eager group of incoming Roadrunners made an impact on their new community.

Nearly 50 new first-year and transfer students in the College’s Leaders in Service (LIS) program fanned out across Mahwah, NJ to volunteer their time and energy to causes throughout the 26-square-mile township where Ramapo’s picturesque, welcoming campus is located.

The second-annual “Mahwah Day of Service” was part of the six-day LIS summer session. During the session, new students are given the opportunity to get involved with service projects, political engagement, and leadership opportunities. Then during the academic year, students in the program attend monthly workshops covering topics on civic engagement, leadership development, and skill-building.

“I did this program because I thought it was a great step to get involved. I liked what it stood for,” said Sophia Cortez ’30, a political science major from East Brunswick, NJ, who is living on campus. Cortez said she plans to pursue her Master of Public Policy through Ramapo’s 4+1 program.

Cortez was amongst a group of students moving picnic tables and spreading woodchips at MEVO (Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization, Inc.), to help the environmental not-for-profit organization get its grounds prepared for its annual farm-to-table dinner. While Cortez was volunteering, she was also chatting with other new Roadrunners.

“I wanted to put myself out there and make all these new connections, which I was able to do immediately. I mean, the moment I stepped in here, I was able to converse with other people … it was just a great way to make friends,” Cortez said.

Cortez was assisting Finance Major Daphne Luhrs ’30 of Butler, NJ, with shoveling woodchips into a wheel barrow. Luhrs said she joined the program because she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to be out in nature a week before classes began, and “I wanted to learn leadership skills.” Both Luhrs and Cortez said they chose to live on campus so they could easily get involved on campus.

While at MEVO, the students got a taste of the kinds of hands-on experiential learning they will embark on as Roadrunners. They took part in a farm tour, walked through the fields to see what was growing, and learned about regenerative agriculture. The fresh woodchips the students spread would be nice for dinner guests to walk on, but also, “help to prevent erosion and keep weeds down, so its dual purpose for aesthetics, but also functionality,” explained MEVO Farm Manager Jacob Morenberg.

The LIS students were the latest in a long line of Roadrunners who have spent time at MEVO as both volunteers and interns.

Allene Shapiro, coordinator for community engagement in Ramapo’s Center for Student Involvement, said bringing the LIS students to MEVO early on in their college journeys allows them to view the organization “as an option” for future opportunities for internships, giving back and building community.

Other LIS students spent the “Mahwah Day of Service” volunteering at the:

• Continental Soldiers Field to partake in a cleanup around Lake Henry;
• Mahwah Department of Public Works to wash fleet vehicles;
• Mahwah Senior Center to tutor senior citizens on technology; and
• Mahwah Public Library to sort books.

“It’s really nice to connect them with community beyond the walls of campus before they even get started, so that becomes a natural thing for them to do,” explained Shapiro. “It’s nice for students to familiarize themselves with a community because we don’t exist in a vacuum … the decisions and the projects … that students engage in impacts the community beyond campus.”

During the LIS summer session, students had additional opportunities to volunteer. Students in the program also spent time at: the

• Celery Farm Nature Preserve in Allendale, NJ, removing old boardwalk and replacing it with mulch to help with flooding issues;
• New York New Jersey Trail Conference, mulching and removing invasive species; and
• Ramapo campus, moving in new students, weeding an overgrown garden for the Garden Club to utilize, and removing mugwort from meadows to ensure native plants have room to grow and allow pollinators and wildlife to continue to use the meadows.

The LIS students were guided through the service projects by 14 peer mentors – Roadrunners who were once in the LIS program themselves. “I come back every year to return as a peer mentor to help the incoming students get introduced to the community service initiatives in the area,” said Neuroscience and Biochemistry Major Franco Miyashiro ’27, Ramapo’s first-ever Goldwater Scholar. “I thought it was so much fun when I was in their shoes.”

Visit the Leaders in Service webpage to learn more about the program.