Rebecca Solomita

Rebecca Solomita of Hawthorne, NJ is a member of the New Jersey Air National Guard who devotes all her time to finishing her degree. She is a Literature major and Spanish Language Studies minor. The senior has earned a 3.50 grade point average. Rebecca worked as a teacher’s assistant before enrolling at Ramapo College.

Awarded Scholarships

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2012

Ross Family Survivor to Survivor Scholarship

A survivor of the Holocaust, Josef A. Ross was born in Skarzysko, Poland. In the fourth grade, his primary education in the local public school abruptly came to an end with the Nazi invasion of September, 1939. The rest of his youth coincided with the horrific years of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath. On May 9, 1945, he was liberated from Terezin (Thersienstadt) Concentration Camp. Four years later he came to the United States and eventually settled in New York City. Having already received some vocational training, he was able to obtain a job as a mechanic in a luggage factory, where he rose through the ranks and soon became the plant manager. Seven years later he founded his own luggage manufacturing business.

“In between,” as he describes it, he married his dear wife Roz, had two daughters and contributed his talents and energy to a number of organizations including the Skarzysko Society, the Prime Minister’s Club of Israel Bonds, the Luggage and Leather Goods Association and the National Association of Sporting Goods. He has also been a member of the board of the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Ramapo College, a member of the President’s Council of the World Jewish Congress and an active supporter of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Mr. and Mrs. Ross founded the American Stage Company based at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

“I had been thinking about doing something to recognize current service men and women,” Mr. Ross recalled in 2004. “The best solution was to set up a scholarship. First, I wanted to pay back the American forces that liberated the concentration camps,” he says. “Second, I was forbidden to attend any schools during the war in Europe, so I know how it feels not to have an education.”

The Ross Family Survivor to Survivor Scholarship is available to students who are former U.S. service personnel or their children. Candidates can be from any state in the country. The scholarship is funded by an endowment established by the Ross family.

 

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2011

Hackett, Fran Service to America Scholarship

Frances Hackett ’80 was vice president of Administration and OSGLI in Prudential Financial’s Group Insurance department. Among her responsibilities was  life insurance for the military. Mrs. Hackett also served on the Advisory Committee for Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) Veterans and Families, administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, among other volunteer positions. “I want to do something for those who have done so much for our country and help them pursue educational opportunities,” Mrs. Hackett said. “Creating this scholarship ties into my role at Prudential and the OIF/OEF Advisory Committee.” The Fran Hackett Service to America Scholarship benefits Ramapo students who have served, or are currently serving, in the military and are in good academic standing.