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.

The handshakes will be virtual at this fall’s career fair at NJIT.



In fact, the entire fair will take place online via Handshake, the career networking platform that the university uses to match employers with students seeking jobs, internships and co-operative education opportunities. 

Quoting Fred Rogers and poet Audre Lorde, NJIT alumna Gabrielle Rejouis urged members of the Class of 2024 to be helpers and foster communities during the university’s annual convocation, which was held online on Wed., Sep. 9, 2020.

 

Matthew Cherrey never traveled overseas — no high school trip to Europe, no semester abroad as an undergrad, no spring breaks in exotic, far away locales — but he always wanted to do so, particularly to Germany where his family has roots. Now he's getting an opportunity, representing NJIT next year as a Fulbright Research Award Scholar.

As students converged on NJIT for the first day of the fall semester, they acknowledged the changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, chief among them, of course, mask-wearing. Nevertheless, they relished the chance to resume classes and reconnect with friends.