Albert dorman honors college adhc

New Jersey Institute of Technology served up a full day of fanfare as its advanced degree graduates walked across the stage in the Wellness and Events Center in three commencement ceremonies on May 15. The 2024 class comprises more than 1,400 graduates and reflects the institution’s steady growth and upward trajectory.

Here, we conclude a two-part series in which winners of the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award at this year’s College of Science and Liberal Arts Awards share memorable experiences that highlighted their path to success at NJIT, while they also look ahead to plans after Commencement 2024.

Isaiah Rejouis, B.A. Biology

A special group of NJIT’s graduating seniors is finishing undergraduate life with a flourish — their achievements across the humanities and STEM sciences recently earned them the Outstanding Student Award at the College of Science and Liberal Arts Awards this month.

In the first of a two-part series, we catch up with this year’s winners who share their successes and memorable moments at NJIT, as well as exciting plans following Commencement 2024.

Speaker after speaker reinforced what Kevin Belfield, dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts at New Jersey Institute of Technology, said about the university’s Math Success Initiative: “It takes a village to put a program like this together.”

The speakers were at a campus ceremony celebrating the first students to experience MSI and graduate from NJIT: Okyere Boateng, Brian Herrera-Calle, Catherine Ochoa and Steff Pitti.

Close to 100 Albert Dorman Honors College scholars from Introduction to Research Writing and Introduction to Research Methods presented their semester's research, with topics ranging from TikTok influencer marketing to an analysis of healthcare in the United States.

While thousands traveled westward and northward from New Jersey through bumper-to-bumper traffic to reach the totality of the solar eclipse on April 8, NJIT undergraduate physics students Anneliese Schmidt ’24 and Joseph Visone ’25 were finally able to relax. For them, the race to the eclipse was over, having finally finished deploying instrumentation in upstate New York to explore the question — How does the eclipse change the space environment near Earth?

NJIT’s annual celebration of its top student researchers kicked off at the 2024 Dana Knox Student Research Showcase, which once again highlighted a stunning array of innovation and discovery from every corner of the STEM disciplines.

Now in its 19th year, the showcase competition featured 68 diverse research projects presented by students from NJIT’s six colleges at the university Campus Center.

The 35th annual Scholarship Brunch took place April 12, bringing together generous benefactors who have created scholarships at NJIT with the students benefiting from their support.

The event humanizes and demonstrates the impact of giving back and removing a financial burden to those who need it most. In a unique opportunity, scores of scholars attended with each one proudly representing — and meeting — their donors. 

From an estimated pool of over 5,000 college sophomores and juniors, two NJIT students — Danna Valentina Sanchez Hernandez and Owen West — have been named Goldwater Scholars this year by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. The scholarship is recognized as among the country’s most prestigious for STEM undergraduates pursuing research careers.

New Jersey Institute of Technology aims to be a nexus of innovation that embraces new tech, commercializes groundbreaking research, leverages its diversity and tackles global environmental and socioeconomic challenges under a new strategic plan that extends through 2030.

The plan, NJIT Makes An Innovation Nexus, identifies six priorities, spells out the university’s mission to be a leader in research, innovation and entrepreneurship, and reaffirms its core values, including collaboration, social responsibility, diversity and sustainability.