NJIT Graduates 3,000 Who Excelled Despite COVID-19 Pandemic
New Jersey Institute of Technology formally graduated more than 3,000 students today, in a hybrid in-person and virtual ceremony due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
Kimberly Bryant, founder and CEO of Black Girls Code, delivered this year’s commencement address. Black Girls Code is a non-profit organization teaching computer science skills to Black females ages 7-11 and emphasizing entrepreneurship. Bryant studied electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University.
Bryant, in receiving an honorary Doctorate of Science, told students that as predominantly STEM graduates, they're uniquely equipped to surmount challenges which will be greater than anything they encountered in college. She urged them to use their power to help mend economic and opportunity gaps between people of means and those without, which continue to grow and especially leaves women and minorities behind.
"I want to suggest that while the challenges that still lie ahead of us are daunting, I believe your generation has everything it needs to lead the way to a better, brighter and more equitable future for all of us," she said. "The world that stands before us today looks quite different than the one that faced your peers this time last year and certainly in years before. Many of you like our girls at Black Girls Code have spent the last year learning how to navigate learning in a digital environment while watching the world fight a devastating disease and businesses and social structures collapse all around us. Change is always hard even under the best circumstances but doubly so when in the face of crisis. But we as engineers were built to solve problems, and now is the perfect time to put your creative skills for innovation and your leadership tools to use. As the former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt stated, 'With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts'."
"As engineers, technologists and innovators I believe you are uniquely gifted," Bryant continued. "You are the architects of the future. These talents to create and build are a gift. And yet they are also a privilege which endows you with a span of impact which extends well beyond your immediate circle of influence. I ask how will you use this next level agency? When you are building new systems, will you ask if those systems will be accessible to and useful for or detrimental to disenfranchised communities? Will you use your skills and your agency to build things that empower others to own their power and their voices? As engineers and leaders, how will you do what is right when the pressure is on to follow the herd or obey an authority figure who has gone off course? I know you will find a way – the best leaders always do."
NJIT President Joel S. Bloom led the online ceremony today, which included recordings of in-person activities last Wednesday and Friday. Bloom told graduates that their journey has been uniquely challenging, as students faced a “mountain of unknowns” in an ever-changing landscape with circumstances unimaginable just a few years ago. "What you have accomplished did not come easily, and that should instill in you a sense of pride and a measure of confidence that will fortify you in your life’s pursuits. You will carry forward a resolute belief that, when obstacles are thrown in your way, you will overcome them, because that is exactly what this class has done to reach this milestone," he said.
"We made it through an incredible journey these past few years, and especially, especially over the past year," said Anuj Patel, student senate president, who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and was a member of Albert Dorman Honors College. His first job will be at President Container Group, in Middletown, N.Y. as a continuous improvement engineer.
The last few years saw difficult news that was very serious, such as civil rights abuses and presidential impeachment, but there was also good news, added Patel, whose family lives outside Toronto. "Africa was declared polio free, air pollution dropped significantly and species re-populated, we landed another rover and flew a drone on another planet, the world came together to develop a vaccine in one year that would normally take 10-plus years," he said, not resisting some humor — "And of course the largest accomplishment, NJIT professors learned to use WebEx."
"Despite most of us remembering 2020 as the year of COVID-19, a time where we all sat at home miserable with no interactions with those we care about, 2020 and 2021 should be remembered as proof of the value of human life and the strength of humankind to triumph."
The graduate student speaker was Ogochukwu Enekwizu, who completed her Ph.D. in chemical engineering in December 2020. Reflecting on the pandemic, "Life does not travel only on a straight line, there will always be twists and turns," she said. "When I began the Ph.D. program, I would never have imagined an ending like this. 2020 started with a lot of promise and then COVID happened, and 365 days felt like 3,065 days. Like many of you here, I hoped for the best, cried, prayed, worked hard, lost hope, rediscovered it and repeated the cycle more times than I could count."
Like running in a marathon without a defined route, "we have all had to dig deep and keep going when we’d rather quit," Enekwizu added. "We have all expended a lot of sweat, tears, and great sacrifice to arrive at this point in our career and lives."
Honorary degrees were also conferred on Rev. Edwin Leahy O.S.B., headmaster of St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, and Lawrence A. Raia '65, partner at Raia Properties and an NJIT Board of Trustees member since 2012.
"It is a great honor to receive this award from the school that has given me so much," Raia said. "Congratulations to the Class of 2021. You are the brightest of the bright and have worked hard to get to this place. That is the good news. The better news is you are just warming up."
Raia urged students to embrace opportunities in life and to put good ethics and character first. Finally, "The most important guidance I can share with you today is that perservance and persistance are all-powerful. I was a late acceptance to Newark College of Engineering 60 years ago. Th school made a bet on me that changed my life."
"It's been tough, but we always persevered. We always knew we'd make it through," said Osama Muhammed, a civil engineering major from Bayonne. "It's been difficult, but overall I've been happy here despite the COVID years," added Cameron Green, a history major from Mountain Lakes.
Nicholas Rubulotta, of Toms River, studied chemical engineering and is moving to Wisconsin for a job as a process supervisor. David Bushira, a mechanical engineer who lives in Elizabeth, is moving to Michigan to work for General Motors. Youstina Saroufim is becoming a civil engineer after transferring to NJIT from Drexel University. She is also finishing an M.S. here, next fall, in construction and engineering management. Bushira and Saroufim both moved here from Africa.
More than two dozen students received the NJIT Presidential Medal for graduating with a 4.0 grade-point average. In addition, NJIT recognized two students, JingJing Yao and Haitao Yuan, with the annual Hashimoto prize for the best doctoral dissertation. That prize goes to students in electrical and computer engineering and it is named in honor of the inventor Kazuo Hashimoto, who earned more than 1,000 patents related to telecommunications including the telephone answering machine.
Celebrations from individual NJIT colleges and schools are also occurring this week. One of the most noteworthy is from Hillier College of Architecture and Design, which landed Theodore Landsmark, the prominent civil rights activist and distinguished professor from Northeastern University.
"NJIT has been a great experience. I got to meet people from different backgrounds," said Bushira. "I got to learn a lot of skills that I can utilize outside of education, in the real world."
Links to view the different ceremonies are available at commencement.njit.edu/live.
