For Jennifer and Dominic, Scholarships Opened the Door to Science and Engineering at NJIT
Scholarships enabled Jennifer Cabral and Dominic Bosi to overcome financial hurdles and study science and engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Cabral and Bosi are both first-generation students from working-class families. As such, they needed help to afford college. Generous donors supplied that, and once enrolled, they found their callings and are pursuing them with passion.
Both undergraduates shared their stories at an annual NJIT brunch celebrating the impact of scholarships that also featured remarks from pioneering alumna R. Cynthia Pruett ’55 and President Joel S. Bloom. In addition, top students at NJIT’s Albert Dorman Honors College (ADHC) were honored for community education, service and leadership.
Bloom underscored the need to help students financially by noting that about 40% of NJIT’s students are eligible for the Pell grants that the federal government awards to students from low-income backgrounds. Donors also endow scholarships for such students.
In fact, NJIT has established more than 300 named scholarships in the 11 years that Bloom has served as president, including the Diane and Joel Bloom Scholarship, which supports Cabral, a junior majoring in environmental science.
Cabral, an ADHC student who also works in two university offices and produces the biweekly Student Life newsletter, realized her passion for the environment through a course on ecology and evolution and credits her advisor, University Lecturer Michael Bonchonsky, for helping her land an internship at the Middlesex County Utilities Authority and encouraging her to join the Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology Lab led by Associate Professor Mengyan Li. In the lab, she’s researching the biodegradation of a probable carcinogen that’s found in drinking water systems in the U.S.
Addressing the president, Cabral said, “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support you have given to me and my parents and to all of my classmates. You have been our champion, and I want you and your wife to know how much it means to us.”
Bosi, a senior majoring in civil engineering, entered NJIT as a 26-year-old with experience working on large-scale construction projects, including a $400 million upgrade of PATH and a $1 billion replacement of vertical cables at the George Washington Bridge. Even as an undergraduate, he continues to work during the day while attending school at night and on Saturdays.
Once he earns a bachelor’s, Bosi plans to pursue a master’s in structural engineering to fulfill his desire to work on public benefit projects. Still, in his first year, he nearly withdrew, as he needed to support both himself and his younger brother after his mother died and his father sustained a debilitating neck injury.
But then, “I got a call telling me that someone who I never met and who didn’t know anything about me, wanted to help,” recalled Bosi, who’s supported by the Antonio and Ida Scarfone Endowed Scholarship. “In a single instant, college was back in the budget. A chance for me to succeed, for me to become an NJIT-educated engineer, was now once again possible.”
In her remarks, Pruett, a retired IBM executive, encouraged students to embrace life with a sense of wonder and strive to improve society. Moreover, she noted the importance of questioning the ramifications of what’s done in the name of progress. For example, she cited the rise of interstate highways in the 1950s that encouraged car transportation, which, in turn, boosted the production of the CO2 that hastens climate change. Similarly, the development of plastic bags in the same era has resulted in a glut of microplastic waste that threatens the environment.
In sum, Pruett, who established the R. Cynthia Pruett Endowed Scholarship, called for a broader mindset, adding, “How can we think more globally and do things that preserve the planet?”
ADHC Dean Louis Hamilton closed the brunch by bestowing awards on four outstanding Dorman Scholars. Umair Khan ’25 and Michael Tuma ’22 shared the Joan Dorman Prize in Community Education and Development, while Noah Roselli ’22 earned the Dorman Honors Scholar Exceptional Service Award and Jada Evans ’22 received the Albert Dorman Future Leader Award.
