MEDIA ADVISORY: New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) to Confer More than 3,100 Degrees at 102nd Commencement Exercises May 15, May 17 and May 18, 2018

Engineering Educator Dr. Leah Hope Jamieson to Deliver 2018 Commencement Address and Receive Honorary Doctor of Science

Organic chemistry looms large – and sometimes ominously – on the horizon of many an ambitious student, constituting a make or break moment for some on the road to medical or scientific careers. For senior Clayton Powell*, “Orgo” turned out to be a game-changer that propelled him in a new direction entirely.

Four and a half years ago, Dylan Renaud was a senior in high school unsure about a lot of things, in particular about how — even if — he could attend a four-year college. Growing up in a family of six boys, he knew there were things he could always count on his parents for  — such as bandaging up a bleeding forehead from a sibling fight — but there were other things that he understood he could not rely on them for. Paying for college was one of them.

Since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, the race toward the next era of patient care — genomic medicine — was on. 

However, advances in being able to treat patients based on their genetic information have also reshaped the training needed for nearly three million nurses in the U.S., who now require deeper working knowledge of cardiovascular genetics and cutting-edge diagnostic technology, in addition to the traditional medical skills they routinely apply on the hospital floor.