Macaulay Connections

Ryan Merola has continued his award-winning ways since graduating from the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College in 2007.

The high-achieving and much-honored Merola, a third-generation Brooklyn College student who pursued a double major in political science and philosophy, was recently named one of nine scholars chosen for the 2011 class of Mitchell Scholars, named in honor of former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell, who negotiated the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement between nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland.

As a Mitchell Scholar, Merola will focus on the study of violence, terrorism and security at Queen’s University, Belfast, in Northern Ireland. He noted that he has a personal interest in Irish affairs because his maternal grandparents came to New York from Ireland in the 1950s, shortly before his mother was born.

"I still have not processed it yet," Merola says. "I’m overjoyed by the honor. I’ve never studied abroad before, and I’m awed by the opportunity to do so. But it really hasn’t sunk in."

Merola is an analyst with the New York City Police Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, where he has served since he was awarded a New York City Urban Fellowship in 2007. The previous year he won a prestigious Truman Scholarship, worth $30,000 toward a graduate degree in public service. He also was selected to Phi Beta Kappa.

His ultimate goal is to attend law school with the aim of becoming a prosecutor.

Before joining the NYPD Merola was an aide in New York State’s 10th Congressional District office under Rep. Edolphus Towns, handling immigration and housing cases and serving as the congressman’s representative in several neighborhoods of the district.

During his time at Brooklyn College, Merola focused on New York City, with an emphasis on the operations of the city’s government and politics. He interned in various government offices, including the office of Senator Charles E. Schumer, and volunteered in several local political clubs while studying urban policy and New York City history, conducting independent studies on the political debate surrounding the public references to revise the city charter, and researching the changing nature of First Amendment rights in New York City in the wake of 9/11.