Brianne Kennedy

Brianne Kennedy of Old Bridge, NJ is an International Studies major and carries minors in Human Rights & Genocide and Women & Gender Studies. During her first year at Ramapo College, Brianne explored different opportunities in leadership and academia. She found that one of her passions was combatting social justice issues through community service. Brianne has amassed more than 300 hours of community service through the College’s Civic and Community Engagement Center where she became area manager. She planned events for the Leaders in Service Program and won honors from the Center for Student Involvement for campus participation. Brianne participated in an alternative spring break trip to Asheville, NC to build houses. She is particularly pleased to have served as a tutor for the International Rescue Committee working with refugee children at a Youth Summer Academy. She spent six weeks working with children from China, Tibet, Russia, Jordan, Sudan, Iraq and other countries. The experience has inspired Brianne to continue her education and attend graduate school. She has a 3.83 grade point average.

Awarded Scholarships

---

2015

Cronin, Daniel J. Memorial Scholarship

This scholarship will be awarded in Spring 2024. Please check often for application opening dates. 

“He led a life of service to others,” says Bea Cronin, Dan Cronin’s widow. While serving in the Navy in 1966, Dan suffered a severe injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. “Dan lived a good portion of his life in a wheelchair,” says his good friend Mary Alice Rocks Ruggiero, “But I never ceased to be amazed by how well he got around — in snow, in every kind of weather and in every sort of neighborhood — nothing held him back.” In 1980 Dan enrolled at Ramapo College, received a degree in 1984 and continued his education at Seton Hall University where he earned a degree in law.

Dan then began a selfless career in poverty and family law serving as an attorney for Bergen County Legal Services. Among the many honors he received were the New Jersey Certificate of Appreciation for Meritorious Public Service for his work as a member of the Supreme Court’s District Ethics Committee, a Certificate of Appreciation from Shelter Our Sisters, a home for victims of domestic violence and the Outstanding Attorney of the Year award from Legal Services of New Jersey. “It was impossible to venture anywhere within a 15-mile radius of Hackensack with Dan and not run into someone he knew,” says Ms. Ruggiero. “Someone he had helped along the way would spot him and make a point of coming up to us for an exchange.”

Upon Dan’s death in December 2004, Bea Cronin, together with friends and family, created this scholarship fund to honor his life and recognize the next generation of young people devoted to the service of others. The Cronins met at Ramapo College, where Dan was an active member of the Alumni Association Board and Bea served as director of Human Resources until her retirement in 2010.

This scholarship helps advance many of Dan’s ideals, epitomized through his last words to his niece Barbara Ann Wendt: “It is what you do that makes you special.” Continues Robin Reilly of the F.A.I.T.H. Foundation, “Knowing Dan was always there for me in my work with the homeless was a great comfort. He never let me down, not once. I don’t know what we’ll do without him.”

---

2014

Annunziato, Melissa Memorial Scholarship

Early in the summer of 2002, Ramapo College junior Melissa Annunziato was tragically killed in a car accident.  Melissa’s mother, her colleagues, friends, and neighbors sought to establish a permanent legacy to Melissa, her spirit, and beliefs. They spearheaded an effort to raise funds to start an endowed scholarship fund at Ramapo and held an event in February 2003 to celebrate Melissa’s life.

At Ramapo, Melissa was a Literature major working toward teacher certification in Elementary Education. She was committed to community service, worked in the teacher education office and was active in the student organization, Future Educators of America. This award recognizes students with a similar commitment and is open to students who participate in service-learning opportunities or alternative spring break programs, particularly those who are interested in working with children.

Biener, Marcel Scholarship

In 2010 Dr. Alexander Biener created this scholarship in honor of his father, Marcel Biener. Marcel, who passed away in 2012, was a Holocaust survivor by virtue of Jagendorf’s Foundry, a factory that kept thousands of Jews alive. Marcel was fluent in seven languages and was able to parlay his language skills into a career as an engineering professor in Romania and Israel, before moving his family to America.

“The purpose of this scholarship is to further the understanding of survival from genocide,” says Dr. Biener. “It is offered in the hope that talking about the roots of genocide, such as bigotry and lack of education, remembering the terrible instances and celebrating the survivors, regardless of how they survived, will bring us one step further from letting this happen again.”

“This scholarship is offered to students who demonstrate interest, understanding, and compassion in these matters or who plan, through community service, or service in the Peace Corps or our armed forces, to help oppressed people everywhere. In giving to others, we hope to demonstrate the strength of the human spirit — to overcome — and that even one life saved can open a whole new universe. In fostering remembrance and study of the past, we hope to strengthen the abilities and resolve of our youth to seek a better future for all.”

Cronin, Daniel J. Memorial Scholarship

This scholarship will be awarded in Spring 2024. Please check often for application opening dates. 

“He led a life of service to others,” says Bea Cronin, Dan Cronin’s widow. While serving in the Navy in 1966, Dan suffered a severe injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. “Dan lived a good portion of his life in a wheelchair,” says his good friend Mary Alice Rocks Ruggiero, “But I never ceased to be amazed by how well he got around — in snow, in every kind of weather and in every sort of neighborhood — nothing held him back.” In 1980 Dan enrolled at Ramapo College, received a degree in 1984 and continued his education at Seton Hall University where he earned a degree in law.

Dan then began a selfless career in poverty and family law serving as an attorney for Bergen County Legal Services. Among the many honors he received were the New Jersey Certificate of Appreciation for Meritorious Public Service for his work as a member of the Supreme Court’s District Ethics Committee, a Certificate of Appreciation from Shelter Our Sisters, a home for victims of domestic violence and the Outstanding Attorney of the Year award from Legal Services of New Jersey. “It was impossible to venture anywhere within a 15-mile radius of Hackensack with Dan and not run into someone he knew,” says Ms. Ruggiero. “Someone he had helped along the way would spot him and make a point of coming up to us for an exchange.”

Upon Dan’s death in December 2004, Bea Cronin, together with friends and family, created this scholarship fund to honor his life and recognize the next generation of young people devoted to the service of others. The Cronins met at Ramapo College, where Dan was an active member of the Alumni Association Board and Bea served as director of Human Resources until her retirement in 2010.

This scholarship helps advance many of Dan’s ideals, epitomized through his last words to his niece Barbara Ann Wendt: “It is what you do that makes you special.” Continues Robin Reilly of the F.A.I.T.H. Foundation, “Knowing Dan was always there for me in my work with the homeless was a great comfort. He never let me down, not once. I don’t know what we’ll do without him.”