{"id":227824,"date":"2026-05-05T09:03:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/?p=227824"},"modified":"2026-05-05T09:15:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:15:27","slug":"from-an-american-dream-school-education-at-montclair-to-a-future-in-policy-and-global-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/2026\/05\/05\/from-an-american-dream-school-education-at-montclair-to-a-future-in-policy-and-global-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"From an \u2018American Dream School\u2019 Education at Montclair to a Future in Policy and Global Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cMontclair is truly an American dream school,\u201d says Jacob Roby. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those places where if you work really hard, you can achieve a lot, have great experiences and find people who will help you succeed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roby did just that. A graduating senior with a double major in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/academics\/programs\/ba-political-science\/\">Political Science<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/academics\/programs\/ba-policy-studies\/\">Policy Studies<\/a> and a double minor in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/academics\/programs\/chinese-minor\/\">Chinese<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/academics\/programs\/global-security-and-diplomacy-minor\/\">Global Security and Diplomacy<\/a>, he is also a winner of the U.S. Department of State\u2019s highly competitive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/2026\/04\/10\/montclair-student-awarded-highly-competitive-critical-language-scholarship\/\">Critical Language Scholarship<\/a> for intensive Mandarin study.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Policy fellowships and research<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As an honors student in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/honors\/\">Martinson Honors EDGE Program<\/a>, Political Science and Law Professor Tony <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spanakos<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">showed him that politics could mean \u201ctaking your ideas, translating them into public policy, and making a positive impact on the world.\u201d That insight led Roby to seek out real\u2011world policy experience early in his college career, building a record of hands\u2011on public\u2011service work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cJacob has a very good ability to link what interests him to seeking information and opportunities to listening to other people and then moving ahead with his research or professional activities,\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spanakos says. \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He is humble, hard-working and interested in hearing multiple perspectives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Roby dove into opportunities that brought his interests to life:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Alexander Hamilton Institute<\/strong>, Washington, D.C. \u2013 A program that took him to the nation\u2019s capital to study U.S. history and meet policymakers, which \u201copened me to public service as a vocation.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>National security research<\/strong> in D.C. \u2013 Work with a think tank on Taiwan and Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing, giving him a window into the intersection of technology, security and foreign policy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>USDA Student Fellow<\/strong> \u2013 A role in New Jersey that connected his policy training to real\u2011world issues affecting communities closer to home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Roby also joined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/project-aros-lab\/\">Project AROS<\/a>, a Montclair\u2011exclusive research lab that paired him with the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. There, he researched how U.S.\u2013China competition is shaping global efforts to address climate change in the Indo\u2011Pacific region \u2013 a new angle on issues he was already exploring through his national security work in D.C.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Learning alongside students from all walks of life<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Roby\u2019s idea of Montclair as an \u201cAmerican dream school\u201d comes as much from who he studied with as from what he studied. He recalled an early macroeconomics course filled with nontraditional students: veterans of the Marine Corps, a taxi driver, a construction worker and a classmate who worked overnight shifts at a FedEx facility before coming straight to class.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is what I mean about the American Dream \u2013 this University accepts students from all walks of life and gives them a chance to better their lives through higher education,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Taking Montclair global<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>After Commencement, Roby will take that story abroad with support from his Critical Language Scholarship, studying Mandarin Chinese at Tamkang University in New Taipei City, Taiwan. The intensive, immersive eight\u2011week summer program is equivalent to one year of university\u2011level language study and includes living with a host family, meeting regularly with a language exchange partner on campus and immersing himself in the local community.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, Roby hopes to continue his studies at National Taiwan University\u2019s International Chinese Language Program for the following academic year and summer term. He is also considering staying in Taiwan long\u2011term by pursuing a master\u2019s degree in Political Science at National Taiwan University and building a career in a Chinese\u2011speaking environment.<\/p>\n<p><em>This story is part of a series celebrating Montclair State University\u2019s graduates \u2013 students who embody the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/about-montclair\/mission-statement\/\">University\u2019s mission<\/a> to broaden access to exceptional learning opportunities and contribute to the common good.<\/em><\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/\/ Output tags as a list for Google Analytics custom dimension\nwindow.MSU_TagList = [];\n<\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National security research, D.C. experience and a highly competitive U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship put this Montclair State University graduate on a path to public service<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":227823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,313,577,9,582],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admissions","category-alumni","category-graduate-spotlights","category-social-sciences","category-honors-edge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227824"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227829,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227824\/revisions\/227829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}