Inspiring Rutgers-Newark Alum Earns Prestigious Soros Fellowship

NEWARK, NJ — A Rutgers-Newark graduate who recently made his mark as one of the nation’s youngest Muslim elected officials has earned another feather in his cap: a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.

Mussab Ali is among the latest recipients of the annual award, which honors immigrants and children of immigrants by recognizing those who are poised to make significant contribution to U.S. society, culture or their academic field.

Ali is one of 30 recipients of the 2022 fellowship, selected from more than 1,800 applicants. And there’s a good reason why, his alma mater says: in 2017, Mussab Ali became the nation’s youngest Muslim elected official after winning a seat on the Jersey City school board.

Ali, who immigrated to Jersey City from Pakistan as a child in 2000, was a student at Rutgers-Newark when he made his first run for the Jersey City school board in 2016 – partly fueled by his opposition to former president Donald Trump’s “divisive, anti-immigrant rhetoric,” he said.

Although he lost that race, Ali won a seat the following year, becoming the youngest elected official in the city’s history.

According to his alma mater, Ali was a pre-med student with no political aspirations and little knowledge of municipal government when he decided to run. But he was so angered by Trump’s now-debunked claim that thousands of Muslims in Jersey City were cheering as the Twin Towers fell, he felt driven to act.

It evoked memories of the discrimination faced by his parents in the aftermath of 9/11, when his father was laid off from his job, and his mother, a teacher, was subjected to verbal and physical prejudice because she wore a hijab, a Rutgers-Newark blog post states.

After graduating from Rutgers-Newark, Ali was accepted into Harvard Law School, but in 2021 was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma. He underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy during the pandemic, when he was isolated from friends and family. He is now in remission, and although he has stepped down from the school board, he has continued his studies at Harvard.

The $90,000 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship will help Ali complete his education at Harvard Law School.

Ali said the support is a meaningful validation of his work.

“The thing about the Soros award is it’s about this idea that immigrants can come here and chase their version of the American dream,” Ali said. “One of the things I’ve realized is how lucky I am to be an American and how American my story really is.”

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