Kiara Balliram

“My mission is to cultivate compassion and civic consciousness,” says Kiara Balliram. Kiara is a Political Science major with minors in International Studies and Civic and Community Leadership. She is from Ramsey, N.J. 

While at Ramapo Kiara has been a passionate advocate for mental health as a peer educator with Wellness is Now. She was inducted into the Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Society, Tau Sigma, and Sigma Iota Rho. Kiara is currently a campaign intern for New York State Senator John Brooks.

In the near future, Kiara plans to pursue graduate studies in Divinity and International Relations. “Pursuing both avenues of study fully embraces my identity,” she said. “I really found out who I was while at Ramapo.”

Awarded Scholarships

2022

Sykes Family Scholarship

Suzanne Sykes and her late husband, Donald, founded Marpac Industries Inc. in 1967. Marpac manufactured custom plastic containers for specialty chemicals, with offices in Waldwick, NJ and manufacturing sites in New York, California, Oklahoma and Ireland. After selling the company in 1998, Sue enrolled at Ramapo as a returning adult student. She earned her degree in American Studies in 2006 and remains very active with her alma mater.

Of her experience at Ramapo, she says, “The encouragement of the faculty was the probably the most surprising and most meaningful for me. I had some initial concern about how I would be accepted by other students, but it had not occurred to me how the professors might feel about an older student. I was put at ease and never felt uncomfortable. On several occasions, professors told me that they appreciated my presence in their classes, because it changed the dynamics and brought fresh perspectives. Needless to say, I was delighted.”

Sue was a volunteer counselor with the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), which provides small business mentoring and training, and is a former member of the Alumni Advisory Board of the School of Humanities and Global Studies. She now devotes her volunteer hours to various leadership roles in her church and the Ramapo College community. She established the Sykes Family Scholarship to benefit other returning adult students who are pursuing American Studies at Ramapo. She hopes that by completing her college degree as an older adult, she has set a good example for her five grandchildren that learning is a life-long rewarding endeavor.