New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is a man driven by passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Passion to succeed in the classroom, on the field, in New Jersey, in the Senate, and in the country. But before Senator Booker was elected as the first African American Senator for the state of New Jersey, he was a brilliant student-athlete and All-American high school football player who earned a scholarship to play tight end at Stanford University. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the university, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, studied at the University of Oxford and then returned to the states to study law at Yale, graduating in 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His desire to serve was evident in all that he did. He moved to Newark and founded a nonprofit to tackle slumlords in the city, even living in a housing project for eight years. He served on the Newark City Council, was elected the city’s Mayor in 2006 and became the state’s Senator in 2013, where he has served ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he never forgot his roots in education, sports and community organizing and he’s prepared to take on a new opponent- the NCAA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n