At Scholarship Luncheon, Class of 2026 Gift Revives NJIT Tradition
NJIT’s annual Scholarship Luncheon is meant to celebrate donor generosity. This year, it also pointed to what comes next.
The event brings together scholarship benefactors, alumni and student recipients, creating space for the kinds of conversations that remind people what scholarship support really does.
“This annual gathering brings together our generous donors and the exceptional students whose academic journeys their support makes possible,” said Alan Kelly, senior vice president for University Advancement, as he welcomed guests. “Whether you are here as a benefactor or a scholarship recipient, your presence reflects the impact of philanthropy and the meaningful connections it creates.”
This year, one of the clearest expressions of that idea came from the graduating class itself.
The newly established Class of 2026 Annual Scholarship, supported by contributions from fellow seniors, revives a long-standing NJIT tradition of class-year scholarship giving. More than a class gift, it offers graduates a simple and lasting way to stay connected to the university and to the students who will come after them. That made it a fitting focal point for a luncheon centered on the ties between past support, present student experience and future giving.
Now, whenever a member of the Class of 2026 wishes to help a future Highlander, they can proudly donate to their class fund.
“The NJIT Class of 2026 Annual Scholarship will begin supporting students this fall and demonstrates how collective giving, many small contributions coming together, can create lasting impact,” said President Teik Lim. That spirit carried through the rest of the program. Lim described the luncheon as one of his favorite events of the year because it gives donors and students the chance to see one another not in the abstract, but in person.
“It also shows those donors that their support is not just a gift, but an investment in our future,” he said. “And students who receive scholarships know there is someone who believes in them and their abilities. To me, that is very powerful.”
For the Class of 2026, that idea lands in a specific way. There are many ways for alumni to give back, but a class scholarship creates a natural home base — something tied to a shared year, a shared experience and, over time, a shared responsibility to help make that same experience possible for others.
One scholarship, generations of impact
That broader theme of continuity also took on a more personal form during the luncheon through the Association of Computing Machinery CCS Scholarship, which brought together the people who established it, the first student it supported and the student who benefits from it today. In his remarks, Lim pointed to that gathering as a full-circle example of what scholarship support can set in motion over time. “The scholarship founders, its first recipient, and its current recipient, all here together, represent the enduring power of giving,” he said.
Rich Acosta ’11, ’14 and Erica Feldman ’10H, ’10 helped establish the scholarship soon after they graduated from NJIT, and reflects the lasting imprint ACM left on them as students. They said they wanted their giving to remain closely tied to a community that had shaped them. “ACM was the student organization where we spent a lot of our time, but it also shaped who we became."
That sense of continuity was visible in Akhil Gopinath ’15, the scholarship’s first recipient, who has contributed to it since 2022. Gopinath said the support helped ease financial pressure while he was serving on ACM’s student leadership team, giving him more room to focus on strengthening the organization through tutoring and expanded programming. Returning now as both an alumnus and a donor, he said, “It does feel good to come full circle on this, from being a recipient to a donor.”
For current recipient Rain Christian ’27, the scholarship carries that same support into the present. Christian said it has helped create more freedom to focus on academic goals, extracurricular projects and the wider ACM community that has shaped the experience at NJIT. Meeting the scholarship’s founders and first recipient in person at the luncheon made the impact feel tangible. “It really just showed how many people this scholarship has helped, and it’s a tangible reminder of how financial support can open doors for students.”
Taken together, the three perspectives gave the luncheon one of its clearest illustrations of how scholarship support can travel across time: from alumni who create an opportunity, to students who benefit from it, to graduates who decide to help sustain it for the next person.
Christian, Feldman, Acosta, Gopinath and Teik Lim celebrate at Scholarship Lunch.
A student perspective on what support makes possible
That message came through clearly in remarks from student speaker Natalia Peña ’26.
A senior in computer engineering and a member of the Albert Dorman Honors College, Peña spoke about what scholarship support meant to her before she ever arrived on campus. She recalled accepting her place at NJIT before taking a tour because the university’s scholarship offer had already changed what felt possible for her and her family. “For the first time, my worries about how I would afford college faded,” she said.
Peña will pursue a post-graduate degree in human-computer interaction.
Once at NJIT, Peña built a college experience shaped by research, leadership and campus involvement. But at the luncheon, she focused on something more personal: the people behind that support.
A recipient of the Diane and Joel Bloom Scholarship, Peña reflected on meeting former NJIT President Joel Bloom and Diane Bloom at a previous scholarship luncheon after first learning more about their support through a conversation about her financial aid package.
“The Blooms are incredibly kind, wanted to get to know me, and had spent many years in Texas, which is where I’m from,” Peña said. “They had no way to know, but it felt like meeting guardian angels.”
Over the years, she said, they developed a small tradition of taking selfies, which is one of the memories she will cherish most from her time at NJIT, Peña said. Thanking the Blooms for the encouragement that meant so much both to her and to her family back home ended with one more instance of their tradition: a selfie.
Her remarks helped bring the day’s larger theme into focus. Speaking to fellow scholarship recipients, Peña said she hoped their conversations with donors would “leave a lasting impact and inspire you to one day pay it forward.”
Then she turned to the graduating seniors in the room and the Class of 2026 Scholarship itself.
“This initiative revives a once-cherished tradition at NJIT, and I am excited to see it return,” she said. “I encourage you all to get involved and be part of something that will not only keep us connected as classmates but, in supporting future students, will allow us to lift as we climb.”
As the audience collectively dried their eyes and donor-recipient mingling restarted, Peña's selfie tradition inspired many others to capture the moment. In a room built around generosity, it was a small but lasting reminder of what scholarship support can grow into — not just opportunity, but connection.