Forensic science. Robotics. Clean air technologies. Essays about these and other STEM topics recently earned five outstanding middle and high school students scholarships to NJIT summer programs, awarded by the university's Center for Pre-College Programs (CPCP).
The Kelly A. O'Connor, '94, '96, '03 Pre-College Scholarship, awarded to three students, and the Albert Dorman Honors College Community and Service Pre-College Scholarship, presented to two recipients, recognize young scholars' determination to pursue STEM learning and their desire to apply STEM-based technologies to benefit the public.
"Recipients of the Kelly O'Connor Scholarship demonstrated a strong commitment to STEM and clearly articulated how participation in CPCP programs would help them achieve their academic and career goals," says Devonii Reid, director of NJIT's Early College Preparatory Programs and Pre-College Programs. Meanwhile, recipients of the Community and Service Scholarship stood out for their demonstrated dedication to serving others, Reid adds.
"Their essays highlighted meaningful initiatives they had taken to address needs within their communities, reflecting compassion, leadership, and a genuine desire to create positive change."
Year-round, CPCP offers programs and services that support, enrich and inspire STEM-curious students in grades 4 to 12. These scholarships provide fully-funded opportunities to feed students' interest in STEM subjects, laying groundwork for future studies and illuminating pathways to college and careers.
Scarlett Shi Shu
From a young age, Scarlett Shi Shu would watch from her front porch as airplanes overhead approached and departed from Newark Liberty International Airport near her family home. As Shu looked to the skies, she thought about the harmful pollution created by air travel and what she might be able to do about it.
"Even at six years old, I imagined what I called a 'no pollution airplane' because I wanted to make a change," she wrote in her scholarship application essay. "Since then, I have been motivated to design more efficient and environmentally friendly technologies that reduce environmental impact."
In an AP Seminar class at her school, Shu delved into research topics that included social inequities in communities that were prone to natural disasters, and the impact of media pressures on professional athletes. Shu is also a competitive swimmer and started a club to teach basic swimming skills to children in her community.
A rising 11th-grader at High Tech High School in Secaucus, Shu received a Kelly A. O'Connor scholarship. Her long-term goal, she wrote in her essay, is to build a career in STEM where she can contribute to innovation and solve real-world problems.
"Hopefully, I can learn more about aerospace and mechanical engineering from NJIT," Shu says.
Racheal Ayanbukola
"Academically driven" is how a high school counselor described Racheal Ayanbukola, a rising 12th-grader at Colonia High School, in a letter of recommendation for the Dorman Honors College scholarship.
But academic excellence is just one of Ayanbukola's many achievements. She is a Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor and participates in Mini-THON, raising money for children with cancer; the Youth for Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to overturn wrongful convictions; and the Interact Club, a service program that empowers young people to acquire leadership skills through local and international service projects.
Ayanbukola is also active in her school's Black Student Union, the Juggernauts academic trivia team and the Forensic Science Club.
Her interest in forensic science drew Ayanbukola to a leadership role in a summer capstone project sponsored by Woodbridge Township's Division of Sustainability. In the role of data analyst, she evaluated information from waste audits conducted by local buildings, which included a municipal waste facility and a middle school. Her report laid out the results of the audits, described the significance of the findings, and suggested ways in which the Township could improve its waste management practices, "such as incentive programs and enhanced recycling infrastructure," she wrote in her essay.
Through her efforts, the project not only raised awareness of failings in the township's waste management system — it also offered practical solutions for the problem, Ayanbukola wrote. She aims to explore other practical applications for forensic science through CPCP's Forensic Science Initiative.
Victoria Diaz
Victoria Diaz, a rising 12th-grader at the Wardlaw+Hartridge School in Edison, joined her high school's robotics team as a freshman and has been an integral member ever since. But her introduction to STEM began much earlier. After finishing the fourth grade, Diaz was accepted to NJIT's Early College Preparatory Program (ECPP), which she attended for two summers.
"This program gave me the skills to be a creative problem solver, to look at problems from different angles, and to collaborate with others to find new solutions," Diaz wrote in her essay.
During her junior year, she learned to code in an AP course that provided a deep dive into Java programming, and she assisted other students with their classwork. As part of the robotics team, she helped build an electrical system for a soccer-playing robot and led efforts to document the group’s progress.
"What led me to writing my essay was reflecting on my engineering experiences — both here at NJIT and outside of it — and talking about how those experiences shaped me and how I view the world," says Diaz.
Over the course of the 2026 summer program, funded by the Kelly A. O'Connor scholarship, Diaz hopes to further hone her engineering mindset, practice creative thinking and learn about opportunities in diverse engineering fields, "to see what I can apply to my own life," she says.
Aliya Mansur
When Aliya Mansur was five years old, she would rummage through her family's recycling bin for materials to build mockups of appliances. In her hands, cans, boxes and containers found new life, transformed into make-believe cars or a supermarket checkout station — complete with a conveyer belt.
"I loved creating and figuring out how things work together," Mansur wrote in her essay. "Being curious is what piqued my interest in becoming an engineer."
A rising 7th-grade student at Robert R. Lazar Middle School in Montville, Mansur is no newcomer to NJIT. She previously attended the Engineering Explorers: Saturday Morning STEM program in 2024 and the Aeronautical Engineering (FEMME5) summer program in 2025. Through these courses, she learned that engineering isn't just about building things; being an engineer also requires solving problems, making a positive impact in the world and helping others, she wrote.
In addition to academics, Mansur challenges herself and practices teamwork by competing in basketball and softball. She is a member of her school's language clubs and she expresses her creative side by performing in school plays and in musical theater, "which has helped me build confidence and communication skills," she wrote.
With funding from the Kelly A. O'Connor scholarship, Mansur anticipates learning even more about what engineering has to offer.
Lillian Chang
By the time Lillian Chang entered the ninth grade, she had already earned three high school credits. Now a rising 11th-grader at Clarkstown High School South in West Nyack, New York, Chang, a recipient of the Dorman Honors College fund, demonstrates a strong commitment to public service in addition to academic excellence.
At school, Chang co-founded Kitchen Kindness, a club that supports food-insecure families in her community and engages over 130 participants. She is a featured writer for "The Summit," the student-produced science and literary magazine, and serves as secretary of the Youth Against Cancer club. Chang is also active outside of school, volunteering at her local hospital; as a tutor for Afghan refugees; and as a children's ministry teacher at her church.
Using her own savings and a GoFundMe, Chang launched a project called SmileBridge to provide dental hygiene kits to members of the community in need. The project has since expanded to distribute kits in Guatemala, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Ukraine.
Developing SmileBridge and seeing its growth "has enlarged my worldview and deepened my interest in STEM as tools for solving public health challenges," Chang wrote in her essay. With funding to support her attendance of the NJIT STEMx Summer Program in Entrepreneurship, she hopes to learn through hands-on projects "to improve my problem-solving and analytical skills while developing foundations of entrepreneurship."
Grow and enrich your communities
During the presentation of the scholarships at Eberhardt Hall on July 14, CPCP executive director Jacqueline Cusack encouraged the students to consider how they might apply their own STEM interests and opportunities toward lifting up those around them.
"Build upon your skills. Grow and enrich your communities," she said. "You can give back now, wherever you are."
In that spirit of giving back, the Albert Dorman Honors College Scholarship represents Dean Louis Hamilton's vision for nurturing community leadership qualities in pre-college-level students, Cusack said at the inaugural scholarship presentation in 2025.
The other scholarship is dedicated to the memory of Kelly A. O'Connor, an alumnus who earned three degrees from NJIT — a B.S. in civil engineering in 1994, an M.S. in environmental engineering in 1996, and an M.B.A. in 2003. O'Connor served on the boards of CPCP, the Ying Wu College of Computing and the Foundation at NJIT, and the scholarship is awarded annually to three young female scholars.
More than 3,000 students participate each year in CPCP programs, competitions and workshops, while STEM Family Programs offer opportunities for students, parents and adult caregivers to explore STEM together. Since 1979, CPCP has provided STEM-related education and hosted STEM challenges for pre-college students, particularly those from communities that are traditionally underrepresented and underserved.
Educators, schools and school districts also benefit from CPCP initiatives. These include the Federal TRiO programs (Upward Bound, Talent Search and Upward Bound for English Language Learners), Early College Preparatory Programs, College Bound State Grant Program, the Forensic Science Initiative, the Math Science Initiative and teacher professional development.
"CPCP summer programs immerse students in hands-on STEM learning led by both NJIT faculty and experienced K–12 educators," says Reid. "Through project-based learning, industry site visits, research labs, and campus experiences, students gain exposure to cutting-edge technologies, STEM careers, and college life. These experiences build confidence, expand students' perspectives, and inspire them to pursue future education and careers in STEM. Scholarships help ensure these transformative opportunities are accessible to talented students regardless of financial circumstances."
In their academic and personal lives, this year's scholarship recipients have already demonstrated their commitment to science, community and learning. With support from CPCP and NJIT, they gain valuable experience for the next steps in their STEM journeys.
