West Morris Grad Selected For 2 Competitive Programs With Department Of Defense

MENDHAM, NJ — By the end of her freshman year in college, Mendham native Gabriella Ager could already answer the age-old question of, “So what are you going to do after you graduate?”

Ager, a West Morris Mendham graduate, joined an elite group of STEM students who will be guaranteed employment with the U.S. Department of Defense after graduation, through an educational and workforce development program called the SMART Scholarship.

This selective program pays for students’ tuition and offers an annual stipend as well as immersive internships working with scientists and engineers on cutting-edge research for the DoD.

Ager is studying computer science at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and will be working in weapons development alongside scientists and analysts at the U.S. Army Picatinny Arsenal for the next several years.

“I initially wanted to go to law school,” she said. “But then I realized that I really have a strong interest in computer science and cybersecurity - and especially data analysis, and data science.”

This summer, Ager is also working in the performance analysis branch at Picatinny Arsenal in northern Morris County through the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP).

“It’s exhilarating,” she said. “I’m a little bit intimidated because I’m just a freshman; I don’t know as much, obviously, as these people. But I’m really excited.”

She will then work on program development and coding at Picatinny through the SMART program, which stands for Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation.

“It’s an amazing opportunity being in New Jersey, having (Picatinny) in our backyard,” Ager continued. “It’s so close to home.”

There are almost 150,000 civilian employees working in science, technology, engineering, and math fields across the Department of Defense, and the SMART Scholarship provides a pathway to “maintain the technological edge of a DoD workforce ready to meet U.S. national security needs,” the Department said.

“I’m excited to branch out and explore so many different parts of the Department of Defense,” Ager said.

Ager is also the coxswain of the Wesleyan women's crew team, and has three rescue dogs. She said she became interested in working in the field after working on a paper for the International Baccalaureate program at her high school about national security and the app TikTok.

Ager said her research helped her realize how people can become radicalized on social media sites, and how platforms are always not held accountable for users who encourage violence against others. She also said that people can be exposed to anti-American terror groups on social media as well.

"It can cause radicalization domestically as well, if they're just being inundated with all this content that's anti-American," she said.

Ager mentioned the Amnesty International report on how Facebook systems promoted a targeted campaign of violence in Myanmar against the Rohingya people, who are a minority Muslim community in the mostly Buddhist country.

“It shows that social media can create these echo chambers that make it impossible for people to critically think,” she said.