Long before Sharo Atmeh really knew anything about the nitty-gritty reality of politics, he believed he wanted to seek public office. But how do you find out if politics is really for you? For Sharo, who is headed to Harvard in the fall, Rutgers provided just the right environment to get a sense of the ups and downs of holding office. “Rutgers is a place that is amazingly diverse,” he notes. “It gives you a million opportunities.” As a university senator, student representative to the Board of Trustees, and parliamentarian for the Rutgers College Governing Association, Sharo has had a chance to test the political waters and see if politics is for him.

And the answer? Absolutely.

“Rutgers is a very real political environment,” says Sharo, noting how the university’s breadth, diversity, and size require that politicians, even student ones, work with a variety of constituents. “When you run for election at Rutgers,” Sharo notes, “you get as many votes as some districts in the state. If you’re interested in politics, like me, Rutgers’ size is a real asset. You begin to test yourself to see whether politics is for you.”

And testing himself at Rutgers made Sharo even more certain about a future in politics. “Rutgers has been the main driver for my interest in politics,” he says. “I had such a hands-on experience here, and I thought, ‘I really want to do this with my life.’ ”

A double major in political science and journalism from Fair Lawn, Sharo will be pursuing a joint degree in the fall—a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a law degree from Harvard Law School. In addition to politics, he would like to pursue a career as an academic specializing in intellectual property and communications law.

Certainly he is off to a promising start. Aside from his Rutgers experience, Sharo worked as a constituency affairs assistant in the office of U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg. Though he started out as a “paper-pusher,” his enthusiasm and seriousness about politics were recognized by staff members, and soon Sharo was booking events for the senator and even, on one occasion, speaking alongside the senator at a press conference. That press conference gave him a chance to speak about an issue of genuine concern to him—funding for higher education.

Among Sharo’s political activities at Rutgers was an effort to avoid deep cuts to higher education funding. The issue is one close to Sharo’s heart. Sharo is an Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) student who has self-funded his education through scholarships, grants, student loans, and part-time work. One summer he worked three jobs—at American Eagle, Blockbuster, and painting decks. “It’s been extremely difficult,” Sharo notes.

Yet, rather than seeing the issue as solely a personal one, Sharo has taken action by helping other EOF students as president of the Educational Opportunity Program Student Association, by advocating for Rutgers’ poorest students, and by lobbying against cuts in higher ed funding. Activism, of course, doesn’t always generate immediate action. “Those results come much, much later,” says Sharo.