Marissabel Alvarez is nothing if not ambitious. The Fairleigh-Dickinson graduate and Union City native is currently in her first year of a four-year Master’s in Criminal Justice/Juris Law at Rutgers University in Newark with an eye on a career in – what else – law.
Alvarez was at the end of her college career and really didn’t need any more credits, but when she saw the posting for a class on Global Terrorism that included a 10-day seminar in England, she knew what she had to do.
Said Alvarez in a recent telephone interview, “The Criminal Justice department at Fairleigh was offering the class and really, I didn’t even need the credits, but I just went for it,” she said. “I went over [to England] because I wanted to see the international perspective of terrorism.”
The seminar was held at Fairleigh-Dickinson’s sister school, Wroxton College in Oxfordshire, England, at the beginning of August.
And for Alvarez, the daughter of Cuban immigrants, the trip confirmed what she already thought but couldn’t confirm – that the world looks at the United States a whole lot differently than it looks at itself.
Said Alvarez, “It sounds shocking, but the rest of the world looks at what happened as not being such a big deal [from a global perspective]. The kind of thing that happened on September 11 has been happening in other countries on an almost daily basis for years.”
During the students’ stay in England, they attended a series of talks that had the aim of giving the British viewpoint on terrorism, which has been formed by years of dealing with the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The talks focused on countermeasures employed by the government as well as the private sector that serve to prevent and combat terrorism.
According to Alvarez, all of the students during the seminar were American, but the professors were English and the discussions that happened between the two cultures were illuminating, to say the least.
Said Alvarez, “They touched upon the psychology of terrorism and also on the Patriot Act, which started a pretty heated discussion. The interesting thing is that England doesn’t have a constitutional right to privacy like we do, so they have a much different perspective on the Patriot Act than many Americans do. Some people here see it as an erosion of our personal freedom and privacy, but many people at the conference were asking the obvious question – do you want more security and less freedom, or less security? The one conclusion we came to was that there are no concrete answers.”
From the beginning
“Actually, I’ve wanted to be an attorney for my whole life,” said Alvarez, who grew up in Union City and went to high school at the Academy of Holy Angels in Demarest. “When I decided to go to Fairleigh-Dickinson, I saw that they had a great Criminal Justice program. So I began with that right off the bat.” Added Alvarez, “I have no regrets, I loved the whole thing. The professors really inspired me and made me even more interested in pursuing my dreams.”
And according to Alvarez, her parents are to thank for her ambitious nature.
“I got it from my parents,” said Alvarez. “It’s how I was raised. [My parents] came from Cuba and started with nothing and they always wanted us [Alvarez has two sisters, Omadis and Arianna] to have more than they did. They always told us that as long as we dreamed and worked hard, we could do whatever we wanted to.”
Added Alvarez, “I look straightforward. I don’t look at who’s next to me. I compete against myself.”
According to Director of Criminal Justice Studies at Fairleigh-Dickinson Robert Vodde, “One of the department’s aims is to provide a global perspective on education. We think that trips and seminars like this are not only academic, but social and cultural as well.”
Added Vodde, “The students came and left with a whole different perspective. And I can tell you that Marissabel is such a dynamic person, so outgoing. Her enthusiasm is infectious. Whatever she sets her mind to, I am sure she will accomplish it.”