For Deion Searles, a senior at Newark School of Data Science and Information Technology, summer at NJIT meant something unusual for a high school student: he could earn money while getting a head start on college.
Searles was already participating in NJIT’s Math Success Initiative when he applied to the City of Newark’s Summer Youth Employment Program and was accepted. MSI brought him onto campus for math preparation, college-readiness work and other enrichment; SYEP added a stipend that paid him for the time he was investing in that experience.
His days began with group “challenge time,” followed by several hours of algebra and early precalculus. College-preparation sessions covered everything from time management to FAFSA and the Common Application. Then came a different kind of exposure — archery, forensic science and visits around campus.
The Makerspace left the biggest impression.
There, Searles saw virtual-reality tools, 3D printers, soldering equipment and other technologies that felt much closer to the computer science and video game development he hopes to pursue.
“Learning about all these different vast tools not only amped my curiosity, but gave me a newfound determination and motivation to actually engage with this vast field of technology for myself,” Searles said.
His summer is a small window into a much larger relationship. Newark created the employment opportunity; NJIT supplied the academic setting, instruction and exposure. Searles got both.
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Within NJIT’s Center for Pre-College Programs alone, 55 Newark youth took part in the Math Success Initiative, TRIO, NJ GEAR UP and the Forensic Science Initiative with SYEP assistance. Their experiences ranged from college preparation and mentoring to STEM projects and career exploration.
For some families, the stipend is what makes that kind of summer possible in the first place. Jacqueline Cusack, executive director of NJIT’s Center for Pre-College Programs, said SYEP allows students to pursue academic enrichment without necessarily forcing families to choose between education and income.
Searles understood that tradeoff immediately.
“I was able to engage in rigorous coursework … while also being paid for my time furthering my education,” he said. “It’s genuinely the best of both worlds.”
The summer program is only one piece of a partnership that has grown across education, workforce development, housing, infrastructure and neighborhood planning. Taken together, the projects show how Newark and NJIT have built a network aimed at expanding opportunity while responding to needs within the city.
Education and Access
Some of those pathways begin years before a student ever submits a college application.
In 2019, NJIT, the City of Newark and Newark Public Schools established the Math Success Initiative to strengthen students’ preparation for college-level mathematics and increase the number of Newark residents enrolling at NJIT. Tutoring, counseling and college-application support were built into the program.
At the same time, the partners created the Newark Mayor’s Honors Scholars Program, opening another route from Newark Public Schools into NJIT’s Albert Dorman Honors College.
For Searles, the summer made the connection between math and his career ambitions more tangible. He had always been interested in computer science and game design. What he had not fully appreciated was how deeply those fields rely on mathematics.
Geometry, precalculus and the mathematics behind 3D graphics began to look less like classroom requirements and more like tools he would need.
“Exposure to these programs helps to strengthen their candidacy for admission to post-secondary institutions, but also has implications for their self-efficacy, aspirations and ultimate career trajectory,” Cusack said.
There are already examples of what that trajectory can look like.
Kaily Peixoto ’26 came through MSI, became a Newark Mayor’s Scholar and earned a degree in construction engineering technology. While at NJIT, she interned with the Newark Housing Authority and New Jersey Turnpike Authority, worked as a peer mentor and tutor, and took part in community projects in Newark. After graduation, she joined AECOM as an entry-level civil engineer.
Oluwanifemi Fuwa ’26 followed another route from MSI into advanced undergraduate research. She later presented at the National Collegiate Honors Council annual conference, sharing work on air-filtration technology aimed at improving viral removal in shared spaces such as hospitals, trains and classrooms.
The progression can be long: high school preparation, admission, scholarships, research, internships, graduation and, eventually, a career.
Other programs widen the entry points.
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The Ying Wu College of Computing has expanded K–12 outreach across Newark through Newark Kids Code, computing and mathematics programming, and exploration of dual-enrollment opportunities with area high schools.
NJIT’s Forensic Science Initiative takes a different tack, using crime scene investigation as the hook to introduce underserved high school students to biology, chemistry, law and other STEM fields. Two recent participants from STEM Innovation Academy of the Oranges, Luvenia Morton and Rodner Perlera, joined through Essex County’s Summer Youth Employment Program and are now enrolled at NJIT, studying forensic science and chemical engineering, respectively.
The subject matter may be what first catches a student’s attention. The larger goal is to make college and technical careers feel possible.
That same idea reaches beyond high school. Through the STEM Success Academy, NJIT works with the New Jersey Community College Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development to help community college students explore four-year engineering and engineering technology degrees. Fifty-five students participated this summer, bringing the program’s three-year reach to 165.
On the staying power of NJIT’s pre-college work with the city, Cusack points to “a mutual and resolute commitment to serving the pre-college students of Newark” and an understanding of the effect those opportunities can have on students and the community around them.
Workforce, Entrepreneurship and Economic Opportunity
The partnership does not stop once students leave high school. Newark’s Workforce Development Board is connecting residents to workforce development and academic enrichment opportunities through multiple NJIT programs.
At NJIT’s Makerspace, the Pre-Apprenticeship Training in Mechatronics and Advanced Manufacturing program serves workers, veterans, students and others looking to explore careers in manufacturing.
From there, Newark’s role evolves.
The Workforce Development Board is not simply referring participants to NJIT. It then serves as a quality placement partner, helping connect graduates toward one of three next steps: apprenticeships, continuing education or employment.
To date, the federally-funded program has trained more than 175 participants.
Ashish Borgaonkar, principal investigator of the Mechatronics Training Program and a member of the Newark Workforce Development Board said, “Having the City of Newark as both a recruitment and placement partner helps us build a more complete pathway for Newark residents and other participants. The goal isn’t simply to provide training — it’s to make sure people can take what they’ve learned and use/leverage it to build a career taking one meaningful and impactful step at a time.”
Economic opportunity has taken other forms as well.
NJIT joined Newark’s broader Hire, Buy, Live Local effort through the Newark Live Local program, encouraging university employees to live in the city. Subsequent NJIT reporting documented efforts to increase hiring of Newark residents — another way a university can participate in a city’s economic strategy, not only as an educator but as an employer.
For others, opportunity may mean starting a business.
The Paul Profeta Community Entrepreneurship Program offers aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs from Newark and surrounding communities business instruction, mentoring and other support.
Together, those efforts broaden the usual definition of workforce development. The next step may be a job. It may be an apprenticeship, another degree or a business of one’s own.
NJIT has applied a similar approach statewide through Building Digital Bridges, supported by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The initiative combines digital-literacy and technology training with career coaching and preparation for industry credentials for underserved New Jersey residents.
Newark and NJIT Solving City Challenges Together
Not every partnership begins with a student or a job. Sometimes it begins with a problem the city needs to tackle.
When Newark confronted lead in its drinking water, NJIT environmental engineers worked alongside the city during its lead service-line remediation effort. Researchers studied corrosion, analyzed excavated pipes and tested treatment strategies designed to limit lead exposure as thousands of service lines were replaced.
Students became part of the work, too, receiving training to evaluate pipe replacements. A major public-health and infrastructure challenge became, at the same time, a research project and an educational experience.
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That problem-solving relationship extends into flooding, stormwater and urban resilience. Through NJIT’s Center for Natural Resources, Michel Boufadel and his colleagues have worked on projects across greater Newark that combine research with practical environmental solutions. At Weequahic Park, the team built green infrastructure using engineered porous filters to improve water quality. Other projects are examining how trees and other natural solutions can reduce stormwater runoff and urban heat, while a NOAA-funded effort is monitoring newly constructed green infrastructure and bringing high school and community college students into the work through hands-on training.
The center has also applied tools including drone-mounted LiDAR, cameras and artificial intelligence to study flooding and infrastructure in nearby Essex County communities. Through its REACH program, CNR is working with communities across New Jersey to help local governments and residents better prepare for flooding and other environmental hazards, pairing technical expertise with community-informed planning and long-term resilience strategies.
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That same emphasis on environmental problem-solving is also reaching students through service learning. In Life on the River, a collaboration between NJIT’s Albert Dorman Honors College and Newark College of Engineering, student teams are working with community members and environmental organizations along Newark’s Second River on projects involving water quality, remediation, flooding, public access and neighborhood use. Their work ranges from testing biochar as a lower-cost way to remove contaminants to designing rain gardens, floating wetlands and boardwalk concepts, while another team is building an immersive digital environment to make the river’s history and environmental data more accessible to residents, researchers and policymakers.
Architecture and design have created another long-running connection between campus and city.
Through the Newark Design Collaborative and other studios, NJIT faculty and students have worked with municipal agencies, community organizations and residents on projects rooted in real places and real needs. Those collaborations have ranged from tiny-home concepts tied to Newark’s Hope Village initiative for people experiencing homelessness to a recent effort in which nearly 170 architecture students helped design and build structures for the city’s public pools.
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Other work takes on the scale of an entire district.
Airport City Newark brings NJIT together with Newark and regional partners around a complicated question: How can Newark Liberty International Airport — one of the region’s most important economic engines — connect more directly with, and create greater benefit for, the communities surrounding it?
The coalition has combined community engagement, transportation and economic analysis, environmental review and urban planning. Current work includes helping shape a Community Benefits Agreement framework intended to ensure that transit-oriented development along Frelinghuysen Avenue creates lasting benefits for South Ward residents.
The same model can travel.
In Ridgewood, NJIT researchers have worked with Ridgewood Water on technologies for detecting, capturing and destroying PFAS. The utility also participates in a statewide consortium based at NJIT that is working toward solutions for so-called “forever chemicals.”
Different municipality, different problem. But the underlying approach is familiar: pair public needs with university expertise, research and people who can help work through them.
Opportunity Over Time
Programs can be counted. Partnerships are harder to measure. Sometimes the clearest evidence is a person who moved through one.
Peixoto began as a Newark high school student in MSI. She became a Mayor’s Scholar, graduated from NJIT and entered the engineering profession, all while remaining involved in projects and service connected to the city where the pathway began.
Fuwa moved from the same city-university math initiative into undergraduate research and national academic exposure.
Searles is still near the beginning.
Born and raised in Newark, he plans to study computer science, with interests in software development and video game design. Eventually, he hopes to create technologies that make everyday life easier and tools that could assist people with neurodivergence.
“I really want to make a prominent impact on the world around me with computer science,” Searles said.
Where that ambition ultimately leads is up to him. But the circumstances that helped sharpen it were built together: a Newark program that opened the door to paid summer employment, a university that supplied academic preparation and exposure, and a student ready to make use of both.
