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The Charles I. Biederman Prize is awarded annually by the Department of Philosophy to a student demonstrating scholastic excellence in the field of philosophy. Charles Biederman was a former chair and longtime member of the department.
The winner for 2009 is Sam Beeler. The runners up are Login George, Liliana Gomez, Rich Schonthal, and Jose Silva.
Sam Beeler
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Sam Beeler is man of many talents. He has worked at the New York Times as a network administrator and as a database analyst in data mining. Then he changed industries with a foray into musical artist management working with many high-profile acts such as Kanye West, Clive Davis, Stevie Wonder, Ludacris, and Marc Anthony. Sam again changed industries moving into healthcare as a perioperative autologous transfusionist working along side surgeons in the operating room “collecting the patient's blood, heparinizing it to prevent coagulation, washing it with saline, centrifuging it to collect packed red-blood cells and then transfusing it back to the patient.” Currently he provides day-to-day management of hospitals and healthcare service providers.
Sam's academic record is as impressive as his professional résumé. He graduated from Passaic County Community college with an Associate of Art's degree in the Humanities. He graduated with Highest Honors and was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa. He served on the Student Government, Academic Judicial Committee, and school newspaper and held a congressional internship with (then) Congressman Herb C. Klein. He graduated from Rutgers University-Newark Summa Cum Laude with a 3.98 GPA and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Lambda Sigma societies.
Sam is a Native America (Cherokee), a fact that he likes to point out because “our society, in general, tends to forget about our existence and often mistakes us for something else (i.e. Hispanic, Asian/Pacific, etc.).”
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| Login George |
Login received all of his undergrad education at Rutgers-Newark where he was a double major in Psychology and Philosophy. He will be attending William Paterson for a Masters in Clinical Psychology in the Fall. His future goals are to get a PhD in Clinical Psychology, to have a private practice, and to be a college professor.
“I have really enjoyed how philosophy has opened up my perspective and sharpened my critical skills. It has taught me to look at an issue not from one point of view but many. It has showed me the importance of being critical and most importantly, the importance of being critical of myself.”
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| Liliana Gomez |
Liliana Gomez is a popular educator who has worked extensively in South America recuperating ancient traditions and alternative forms of living and learning. Her experience and expertise encompass areas such as permaculture, natural construction, communal living, ritual drumming, theater, circus arts and artisan weaving and crafts. Co-founder of Albergue Ecologico Y Escuela de Vida Alternativa El Ombigo in Santa Marta Colombia, she sees the need to forge Democratic Schools to address the loss of individual freedom as well as the repression of children’s true needs and desire to learn.
“I was born in New Jersey and my childhood was spent on local streets and parks dreaming, imagining and acting out large scale adventures in which I spied on the bad guys and helped save the world from impending doom. The rest of my life has been a bizarre variation of the same. I left the U.S. in 1996 on this same mission believing that by relocating to a remote mountainside of South America I would be able to teach myself the needed survival skills to face the coming century and the inevitable return of the humans to sustainable planetary living conditions. There I received the greatest lessons of my life, the benefits of which I will continue to reap as I venture into the future. Upon becoming a mother however I saw the need to return the U.S. and complete my bachelor’s so that she would have the opportunity to witness the world I knew. My future goals are to continue to grow, learn, travel, teach write, build homes, plant trees and scale mountains. I am grateful to Rutgers for helping me to challenge myself and showing me that hard work makes me stronger.”
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| Rich Schonthal |
Rich graduated Rutgers University-Newark Summa Cum Laude with a 3.89 GPA. Before attending Rutgers-Newark he had a thirteen-year career as a software developer working on software such as telephone interface equipment, corporate databases, and x-ray viewers. He then spent the next few years working as a full-time musician and music teacher.
“I really fell in love with philosophy at Rutgers-Newark. So much so that I planned to apply to graduate school for philosophy. But, I have so many varied interests that I just can't be pinned down to one field! Right now I'm working on developing websites, putting together an album of original music, and in 2010 I will be directing my first short film.”
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| Jose Silva |
“I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, where I lived until 12 years old. I then moved with my family to West New York, NJ, and have resided there until today. I attended Memorial High School, from which I graduated in 2003. I started at Rutgers Newark in 2004 as a computer programming major, but changed it to English and Philosophy in my sophomore year.” |
       
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