Student Profiles

Mateusz Solarz is a 2022 graduate of the MA Program in Political Science - United Nations and Global Policy Studies at Rutgers University. During his time in the program, he served as a Student Ambassador and spent two consecutive summers interning first with the US State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs and then with an agency within the US Department of Justice, respectively. He continued to intern on an intermittent basis with the Justice Department in the Fall of 2021. He was also the winner of the 2021 UNMA Essay Contest for his policy paper entitled, “Alternatives for Achieving Justice in South Sudan.” Moreover, outside of the MA program, Mateusz served as a senior research fellow on the Eagleton Institute - Miller Center Pandemic Task Force, which he had been on since September 2020 and served in various leadership capacities. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Rutgers University in May 2020 with a BA in History and Political Science. As an undergraduate, Mateusz was in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, an Eagleton Institute of Politics Undergraduate Associate, designated both an honors scholar and a Paul Robeson scholar, and completed an honors thesis through the History Department titled, “Women in the Era of Solidarność and Democratization in Poland: The Continuity and Reimagining of Matka Polka,” which received high honors. Throughout all four undergraduate years, he worked for Rutgers Recreation, eventually being promoted to Supervisor. Mateusz was also a campaign fellow on the Andy Kim for Congress Campaign and an intern in the District Office of Congressman Andy Kim. After completing his graduate studies, Mateusz is seeking to leverage his internship experiences and his academic background to fulfill his professional goal in life, which is to enter public service, preferably in roles dealing with national security, intelligence, and foreign policy.