NJIT and New York Red Bulls Host STEM Education Event at Sports Illustrated Stadium

The New York Red Bulls and NJIT invited 60 students from Harrison High School to take part in a soccer-related STEM education program, which included eight different stations.
This event, held at Sports Illustrated Stadium, provided an educational, hands-on experience, paired with physical activity opportunities manned by RBNY staff.
The stations covered the following topics – The Science of Stretching & Injury Prevention, Calculating Throw-Ins, Synthetic vs. Natural Materials, Heart Rate and Calories, Effective Ball Travel, Pressure and Molecular Motion, Goal-Line Technology, and Probability and Penalty Kicks.
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Among the students taking part in the activities were senior Ally Carvajal and Natalie Escobar, a sophomore.
Carvajal looks forward to attending Caldwell University to play softball. Her dad recently visited Perú and is an avid soccer fan.
“I'm learning a lot more about soccer than I did before,” she said. “I didn't think math had anything to do with it until today.”
Escobar, who hopes to enter the medical field in the future, enjoyed her time at Sports Illustrated Stadium. Her brother is a current freshman at NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing. “The college is really nice, and he likes it,” she said.
She aspires to follow in her brother’s footsteps and also attend NJIT.
“NJIT has been a partner for five years,” said Nick Palumbo, senior manager partnership marketing at RBNY. “They're a great partner of ours in the education space. This event is able to bring STEM and sports to our high school students here in Harrison, so we had about 60 students come out.
“There's a bunch of different stations all around the stadium for them to be able to learn how STEM impacts their daily lives, as well as the sport of soccer. So it's been a great day, and obviously it wouldn't be possible without NJIT’s support.”
Students were granted a behind-the-scenes experience that few ever get — the chance to walk on the field and explore the halls of a professional soccer stadium. Standing where the players stand and seeing the stadium from their perspective made for a truly unforgettable moment.