As Fimimolaoluwa Are prepares to start working at Honeywell after earning a bachelor’s in chemical engineering, she feels grateful for all the support and experiences she had at New Jersey Institute of Technology. “Chemical engineer I” is her title at Honeywell, where she’ll undergo a year of training before joining the company’s Field Operating Service team. Reflecting on how she got there, she credits mentors, internships, networking and the embrace of a welcoming community. Are had three internships as an undergraduate. She worked in environmental engineering at Phillips 66 (an…

Gbocho Obo’s entrée into biotechnology came via the science, technology and society bachelor’s he earned at New Jersey Institute of Technology. The multidisciplinary degree from NJIT's College of Science and Liberal Arts appealed to his interest in how science and tech impacts people of color like himself.  “My major gave me the skill to understand the reasons why the statistics concerning people of color and other minority groups are what they are, scientifically speaking,” Obo said. “I loved most the gathering of quantitative and qualitative data, personal experience testimonies…

Industrial designer Rebecca Warga, a Bloomingdale, New Jersey native, will head to Luxembourg after graduation to work at ESMP, an experimental soft matter physics lab at the University of Luxembourg. “I've been working with them remotely this semester, and I took a short trip out there over winter break to meet everyone and show them some of the progress I had been working on up to that point. I'm going to be working with graduate students, helping to automate some of their production and research projects.”  Last semester, she made an automated Brewster's angle apparatus to help find…

Tejasi Thool, a Hasbrouck, New Jersey native, looks forward to her next step in her career after completing her digital design studies at New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design.  Her next move will be to get a master’s in medical illustration. “It’s like medical diagrams, and sometimes you see them on Instagram or TikTok, an animation of a surgery that doctors do,” said Thool. “I love being an artist, and my parents always wanted me to go into the medical field.” During her time at NJIT, Thool joined NJIT SIGGRAPH. As an international…

One summer Kenia Suarez decided to visit NJIT. The Lima, Perú native wanted to find out how she could get accepted into NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design. Little did she know that after that first visit, her career and dreams would take off.  “I went to HCAD, and there were a few professors during summer,” said Suarez. “I was very nervous because I didn't speak much English at the time, and they encouraged me to try it out. One of the professors was John Cays, and he inspired me a lot to just try it, and I did it. When I got accepted, I was over the moon.” Suarez began…

Preaching patience, courage and resilience, MGM Construction Co. President and CEO Marjorie Perry urged the Class of 2024 at New Jersey Institute of Technology to become lifelong learners as they apply their imagination to real-world challenges. Perry, an NJIT alumna who serves on its Foundation Board of Directors, called on the undergraduates earning bachelor’s degrees to be “agents of change in our communities” and build a future “that we can all be proud of.” “You stand at the crossroads of what is and what can be,…

A bourgeoning interest in AI that began in high school created a serendipitous fast track to success for Vaisnavi Nemala '24, who came to NJIT as a student in the Ying Wu College of Computing and the Albert Dorman Honors College just in time to join the newly launched B.S. in Data Science in fall 2021. After only one week as a newly minted freshman, she was already engaged in a research project with Associate Professor Hai Phan that would ultimately have her presenting a paper as lead author at the 32nd ACM CIKM 2023 conference in Birmingham, England. Now, as one of the first to graduate…

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. NJIT Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs John Pelesko, participating in his first commencement exercises as provost, called the ceremonies to order. Pelesko, himself a 1997 alumnus of NJIT as the very first Ph.D. graduate in mathematical sciences, implored…

Following graduation from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Hilsson Angeles will start working at general contracting firm Burns & McDonnell as a construction coordinator. What helped him get there was a tremendous work ethic, which he inherited from his parents, and an interest in both architecture and engineering. Indeed, he’s earning a dual bachelor’s in architecture and construction management technology. Outside of the classroom, Angeles, who’s a native of the Dominican Republic, worked part-time as a student mentor, interned in construction, joined the NJIT chapter of the…

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   Where did you grow up and what led you to NJIT? I grew up in West Orange, NJ. One of my reasons for applying to NJIT was its reputation as a leading university in research. I’ve been fascinated…