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Nicole Campos, a freshman in the Albert Dorman Honors College pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture at Hillier College, started on her path to NJIT even before she got to high school. Her interest in architecture started when she was a kid through a curiosity of meticulous exploration in every house she entered. When it came to choosing a high school, she applied to the closest high school with specialized programs like engineering.

NJIT’s inaugural inductees into its new Colton Society represent an array of disciplines, including engineering, architecture, finance, education and technology. Each, however, shares something remarkable in common: lifetime contributions to the university that exceed half a million dollars.

Chang Yaramothu '13H MS '14 Ph.D. '17, a biomedical engineer who develops diagnostic and therapeutic devices for concussion-related vision disorders, was named a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry just two months after joining the NJIT faculty as an assistant professor of engineering technology.

In the first of a series of events honoring its 25th anniversary, the Albert Dorman Honors College at NJIT held a live, online celebration. Reflecting on the anniversary of the college that he endowed, NJIT alumnus Albert Dorman revisited his remarks from its inauguration, and they are as relevant today as they were in 1995 — perhaps even more so.

Aarati Srikumar, a junior computer science major from Edison and honors student at NJIT, made the best of her summer internship with networking giant Cisco Systems despite the pandemic changing her plans to experience Silicon Valley in person.

Cisco adjusted their program to be fully remote, giving Aarati and her fellow interns a unique and rewarding learning opportunity to work on the company's software updating processes.

When NJIT industrial design major Christopher Hasenkopf isn't in class this semester, it might be because he's out saving someone's home, office or even their life.

His local volunteer fire station in New Providence practically didn't need a dalmatian for their mascot — "I've been going around the station since I moved here when I was three. They had a lot of open houses," he joked. He joined the junior firefighter corps two days after turning 16, which is the earliest age allowed, and entered the Morris County Public Safety Training Academy at 18.

Albert Dorman Honors College welcomed more than 70 additional students this year as part of a new program called Dean's Scholars, designed to allow for a more robust honors education across campus.

The program admits scholars from the College of Science and Liberal Arts, Hillier College of Architecture and Design, Martin Tuchman School of Management, Newark College of Engineering and Ying Wu College of Computing each year who desire the rigor of an honors education within their academic discipline.

Ying Wu College of Computing Assistant Prof. Michael Lee, in an effort to help informatics students consider social consciousness, began teaching a new course last spring, Design Thinking: Addressing Structural Inequality, which will be offered again in spring 2021 due to its success.

Global challenges will be faced head-on Saturday Oct. 10 in this year’s TEDxNJIT. Whether it’s disruptive changes unearthed by a global pandemic afflicting every person, or advances in medical technology affecting just a few, the theme “Intersections” seeks to grasp where society is heading and understand the roads ahead to get there.

Zara Williams started working here 20 years ago, just after NJIT joined the federal McNair Scholars Program to help underrepresented students achieve graduate degrees, and has now seen 22 students complete their doctorates.

"Seems like it went pretty quickly," said Williams, the program's assistant director, in reflecting on her office's success. But she said this year's crop of new students will be especially memorable because of the challenges they face in studying during a pandemic.