Deptford Twp. – Seven of Rowan College of South Jersey’s Gloucester campus students received $1,000 Peter J. McGuire scholarships during the 125th Annual Labor Day Observance held Friday, Aug. 30, at the Collingswood Grand Ballroom.

Rowan College of South Jersey President Frederick Keating and New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney were on hand at the scholarship breakfast to congratulate students Hailee Bachorz of Woodbury, Margaret Benz of Monroeville, Maura Conaghan of Barrington, Jordyn Cudd of Franklinville, Tyren Davis of Hi Nella, Alyssa Meglino of Williamstown and Makaila Valentino of Mullica Hill.

Founded in 1985 by the Camden Central Labor Union and American Federation of Teachers Local 2373, the program honors McGuire, the father of Labor Day. Coordinated by the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, it has granted over 600 scholarships—awarding more than $500,000 to deserving students—since its inception.

McGuire devoted his life to fair labor laws, working conditions and education and co-founded the American Federation of Labor alongside Samuel Gompers. He famously proclaimed, “[we want] more schoolhouses and less jails, more books and less arsenals, more learning and less vice.”

Rowan College South Jersey is a comprehensive, two-year regional college serving more than 10,000 full- and part-time students with degree and workforce development programs, on campuses in Gloucester and Cumberland Counties. The main campus in Gloucester County is located on 250-acres on Tanyard Road in Deptford, just off Exit 56 of Route 55. The Cumberland County campus is located on a 90-acre campus in Vineland, with two off-site locations in Millville: The Paula J. Ring Education Center and the Arts and Innovation Center, containing the Clay College studio and gallery, educational and training classrooms, and entrepreneurial space. Rowan College South Jersey is fully accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.