Nigerian researcher Morenike Alugo has been selected as one of the inaugural Rutgers Democracy Lab Democracy Summer Research Fellows for 2026.
The fellowship brings together 25 doctoral researchers from across Rutgers University to explore questions related to democracy, civic participation and society. The inaugural cohort represents 15 academic disciplines and was selected through a competitive process.
Alugo, a PhD researcher in Prevention Science at Rutgers University–Camden, will use the fellowship to investigate the relationship between participation during adolescence and civic engagement in adulthood.
Her project, titled “School-Based Participation and Lifelong Democratic Engagement: Evidence from the Add Health Study,” examines whether young people’s involvement in school-based activities can influence their likelihood of becoming adults who vote and volunteer.
Using longitudinal data from the Add Health Study, Alugo will examine whether participation in activities such as clubs, teams and other organised school programmes during adolescence is associated with civic participation later in life. Her study uses a sibling fixed-effects approach to account for factors shared within families.
At the heart of the research is a question with implications beyond the classroom:
Can learning to participate as a young person shape how someone participates in society as an adult?
The project builds on Alugo’s wider research interests in youth wellbeing, positive youth development, digital resilience, civic development and engagement, social media, emerging technologies, and school and community contexts of adolescent development.
Her current research at Rutgers also examines adolescent mental health and digital wellbeing, including how young people navigate social media and other emerging technologies.
The Democracy Summer Research Fellowship is part of the Rutgers Democracy Lab’s broader effort to support doctoral research that can deepen understanding of democracy and strengthen civic life. Fellows will conduct their research during Summer 2026 and will have opportunities to share preliminary findings through a public research symposium in Fall 2026.
For Alugo, the fellowship provides an opportunity to examine whether experiences that may seem ordinary during adolescence, joining a club, participating in a team or becoming involved in school activities, can have lasting implications for how people engage with their communities and democratic institutions.
The findings could contribute to broader conversations about the role schools play not only in academic development, but also in preparing young people for meaningful participation in civic life.
For Alugo, the fellowship offers an opportunity to investigate whether the habits of participation developed in adolescence can extend far beyond the school years, potentially offering new insight into how schools can help shape a more civically engaged generation.
