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MATHEW SCHUTZER '08, former Schuster Institute research assistant, will be attending New York University School of Law beginning in the Fall of 2009 where he hopes to take full advantage of the School’s unmatched reputation for Public Interest Law and continue his work with the wrongfully convicted. In the year after graduation Mat worked as a paralegal at the New York City office of the highly regarded law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner. While there, he worked on a trial team with famed litigator David Boies, representing a private investment company in litigation with its former sister company AIG. Mat also worked with Boies on preparatory work on the federal lawsuit challenging California’s Proposition 8, scheduled for trial beginning in the fall of 2009. Mat says>

JESSICA FREIMAN

January 25, 2007—Congratulations to Institute research assistant Jessica Freiman, whose article "Carter's Speech Gets Mixed Grades from Students at Brandeis" appeared on Jan. 25, 2007 in The Jerusalem Post. 

NEENA PATHAK '08 was an Institute research assistant who majored in Sociology and International and Global Studies with a minor in Spanish. She is a recipient of a Brandeis Presidential Scholarship. She was one of six recipients of the Ethics Center Student Fellowship for 2007, during which she worked with the Maharashtra Organic Farming Federation in Maharashtra, India, analyzing alternatives to current government and transnational corporation policies that have been connected to a rash of farmer suicides. She spent the summer of 2006 conducting independent research on international solidarity and the Zapatismo movement in Chiapas, Mexico. After graduation, her plans were to teach secondary English in Philadelphia as a corps member for Teach for America.

RACHEL SEILER '07 is pursuing her master's degree in public health at Saint Louis University, with a joint concentrateion in environmental and occupational health and epidemiology. On top of her coursework, she spends 20 hours a week working at the Prevention Research Center. She was a research assistant at the Institute for three years, while pursuing her undergraduate degree in science. She writes, "I did get interested in public health partly from my work at the Institute. If there were such a thing as marriage between basic science and investigative journalism, I think it would be public health: that was my rationale, at least... Oh, and I wanted to tell you all how handy all that research I did at the Institute has come in with my studies and work here!" Rachel says>

HADAR SAYFAN '07, Florence Graves's WSRC Student Scholar Partner for three years, is attending Boston University Law School. Sayfan says it was while researching investigative reporting articles for Graves—often reading law articles and briefs—that she discovered she wanted to become a lawyer. 

Sayfan shared a byline with Graves on "First Things First," which ran in the Sunday Boston Globe IDEAS section. Sayfan suggested doing an in-depth article Housing First, a radical new approach to end homelessness that is being tested in Boston. The article won the 2008 Cushing Niles Dolbeare award. Hadar says>

JESSICA GOLDINGS ’06, who was a Schuster Institute research assistant from 2004 to 2006, now works as a media relations coordinator at the RAND Corporation, a public policy research and analysis nonprofit based in Arlington, Virginia. After graduating from Brandeis, she worked at the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, which monitors U.S. media, in Washington, D.C. She also blogs for the website of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, She is also an active member of Young Professionals a DC-based group for recent graduates interested in international affairs. Before that, she interned at the State Department, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and the Mayor of Boston's Press Office and Office of Homeland Security. Jessica says>

February 15, 2007—Congratulations to Jessica Goldings, whose article "Hands Off The High School Paper" was the lead article today at Journalism.org. 

June 15, 2006—Four years ago, Jessica Goldings chose Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., for her education, but was still searching for a career path. The politics major eventually started working closely with Florence Graves, the founding director of the Brandeis Institute for Investigative Journalism. After three years working as Graves’ research assistant on investigative reports, the 2006 graduate is leaving Brandeis with a newfound respect for investigative journalism and a desire to join the profession herself....

A native of Dallas, Texas,  she recently scored her first job working as a research assistant at the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) in Washington, D.C. She will work with two nationally esteemed journalists, Tom Rosensteil and Bill Kovach. She was selected from a pool of about 100 applicants from top universities and journalism programs across the United States.... [more] 

HADAS KROITORU '06, a former Institute research assistant, now works as a reporter for the Jerusalem-based non-profit news organization, The Media Line, established to "enhance and balance media coverage in the Middle East, promote independent reporting in the region, and break down barriers to understanding in the Arab and Israeli journalism communities." The organization does its own reporting (print and broadcast) and also sponsors educational and training programs.

June 20, 2007—Congratulations again to Hadas Kroitoru, whose article "Flies Know No Border", witten in her job at The Media Line, appears in the Kuwait edition of the International Herald Tribune!

March 11, 2007—Congratulations to Hadas Kroitoru, whose article "Some People Play Golf; We Save Elephants" is being picked up in Israeli, Arabic, and African newspapers! 

Brandeis student research assistants contributed to Institute / Washington Post investigation

May 1, 2006—Congratulations to the Institute's outstanding student research assistants: Dave Cutler, Jessica Goldings, Hadas Kroitoru, Rachel Seiler, and Sarah Sullivan.

Each of these students contributed significantly to the Institute's collaboration with the Washington Post, "Boeing Parts and Rules Bent, Whistle-Blowers Say," published on page A1, April 17, 2006, through their diligent and determined research.
Thank you!