Math Success Initiative Celebrates First Graduates, Some to Attend NJIT

Last summer 35 11th-graders from four Newark high schools — Central, Malcolm X Shabazz, Science Park and Technology — participated in a seven-week enrichment program as part of the inaugural Math Success Initiative (MSI), an academic partnership between NJIT, the city of Newark and the Newark Board of Education (NBOE). During the past school year, 23 of the 35 completed either Math 110 or Math 111 as a student at the university. And come this fall, 17 of the 23 will be full-time Highlanders; another two will begin attending NJIT in spring 2021. 

Beyond representing the first cohort of the program, these students exemplify the MSI mission: to increase the number of Newark high school graduates who enroll at NJIT for undergraduate education. MSI is designed to strengthen their math knowledge and skills as well as their college readiness. It also provides professional development to a select number of mathematics teachers from the designated high schools to build learning communities that support best practices in mathematics instruction. NJIT’s Center for Pre-College Programs (CPCP) and College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA) administer the program.

The university celebrated the students’ success at a virtual ceremony held June 9. As Jacqueline Cusack, CPCP’s executive director, noted in welcoming the attendees, “We dare not let this moment pass without saying what a great job they’ve done.”

Many were on hand to congratulate the MSI participants for their hard work, persistence and determination, including Joel S. Bloom, president of NJIT; Mayor Ras J. Baraka, city of Newark; Nicole Johnson, deputy superintendent, NBOE; Mario Santos, assistant superintendent for high schools, NBOE; Marsha Armstrong, youth program director, city of Newark; Kevin Belfield, dean, CSLA; Bruce Bukiet, associate professor, Donivyn Schmidt, university lecturer, and Ken Horwitz, university lecturer, NJIT mathematical sciences; Levelle Burr-Alexander, director of special projects, CPCP; and Monique Paden-Hutchinson, director of the TRIO-Talent Search Program, CPCP.

“We want more Newark residents engaged in our university,” said Bloom, calling the MSI a “critically important program” for “getting more students ready for an NJIT educational experience and degree.”

He later added, “We do want to be a model of how you educate diverse populations of students, so they know how they can think together, work together, enjoy one another and continue to learn about the differences as well as the similarities in each and every one of our backgrounds.”

Mayor Baraka commented that the work the students have done “becomes much more important, not just for yourself but for hundreds and thousands of people that are around you and that will come after you.”

Belfield referred to the MSI as a bold partnership and “one of a number of efforts that we at the university are involved in to help ensure a bright and prosperous future for this great city and its residents.” He also noted the importance of developing a command of mathematics in this new age of data science.

Perhaps the most impactful remarks came from the MSI graduates themselves, who described the program as a “life-changing experience” that both improved their math skills and offered a bird’s-eye view of college.