Sophomore Recognized for Launching Program to Teach Incarcerated Individuals to Read

Marisa Syed Received the Chancellor’s Outstanding Student Volunteer Award for her service

Marisa Syed can’t remember a time when she wasn’t doing something to help someone else.

On Sundays, as a child, the 19-year-old would go to mosques, temples and churches with her parents to pack up food for the homeless and others in need. Her father, born in Pakistan and her mother, a first-generation American who went back to Pakistan for medical school as a child, always instilled in her and her three siblings the importance of helping others, giving back and doing your best. 

As she got older, she participated in protest marches and started to take an interest in social justice causes.

“All these things ignited something in me,” said Syed, a sophomore public health major in the School of Arts and Sciences. “I feel like advocacy has always been ingrained in me. I never thought any of it was a chore. It was just part of me.”

The belief that she could make a difference propelled her to start the first youth-led program in the United States that teaches incarcerated individuals how to read and improve their literacy called Pages4ProgressNJ, targeting those with literacy issues at a fourth grade level or lower. 

Syed’s advocacy earned her recognition from Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway, Douglass Steam awards, and the My Mark Conference, a national student-run leadership event. She was also editor on the book First Steps Into Criminal Justice Activism: For Youth with Yale Law School professors, which was featured in Teen Vogue and recognized for her community leadership, advocating for reproductive rights and helping to provide 11,000 menstrual products in correctional facilities across the country.

“Marisa shows that empowered students can make an incredible difference for our society,” said Chancellor Conway, who in 2024 presented Syed with the Chancellor’s Outstanding StudentVolunteer Award. “By helping incarcerated individuals find confidence in their education and rehabilitation, she is not just changing lives but contributing to a safer and healthier society.”

Before coming to Rutgers, Syed became involved with the Justice Education Project, a national youth-led non-profit organization that educates, empowers and encourages Generation Z to advocate for changes within the justice system.

Starting first as an outreach director, Syed later became the executive director, working with young advocates across the country. She launched the literacy program as part of a fellowship project at the Ali Leadership Institute, founded by Mussab Ali, a Rutgers-Newark graduate. Syed and two other Jersey City high school students started Pages4ProgressNJ in the Hudson County Jail after receiving a financial grant and political support from County Commissioner Bill O’Dea.

“It seemed like it took forever to get this going and see results,” Syed said. “But we really believed in this program, so it was worth every minute.” The program offered instructions to inmates at the Hudson County Jail without functional literacy skills – those whose reading and writing skills were at a fourth-grade level. 

Since the program began last spring, four different cohorts of inmates have gone through the eight-week program, Syed said. To get the program off the ground, Syed said they received a grant from Hudson County, collected books in a bin at city hall and donated them to the jail. Then came developing a curriculum for the inmates who would be the first to be involved with the program.

Since the students didn’t have experience teaching adults and were not allowed in the facility because of security reasons, they partnered with an organization that has experience helping and working with recently incarcerated, reintegrating into society, to do the teaching inside the jail. 

“We learned that 70 percent of those incarcerated lack literacy skills,” Syed said. “When we went into the jail and spoke to those who went through the program and they talked about how much it helped and gave them the confidence they need when they get out, it made us proud we pushed for it.” 

Syed’s determination has been acknowledged by many of those who gave her a chance. The Jersey City Council presented Syed with the 2023 Women of Action Award during her senior year at County Prep High School, a magnet public vocational school in Jersey City.

At Rutgers, Syed continues to promote the literacy program in the Hudson County Jail. She is also a member of the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) – whose mission it is to empower the student body – and a voting ambassador at the Eagleton Institutes Center for Youth Political Participation, which encourages student participation and mobilization.

Syed isn’t sure what career path she will take. She may follow in the footsteps of her mother and become a physician or change course and become a lawyer instead. Whatever avenue she takes, she said, advocating for others will always be front and center. 

“This is so much a part of who I am,” Syed said. “I can’t imagine it not being a part of my future.”