NJIT Launches Leadership Council to Fuel Enrollment of Hispanic and Latinx Students
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New Jersey Institute of Technology has launched a Hispanic and Latinx Leadership Council (HLLC) to propel its mission of enrolling more Hispanic and Latinx students and achieve its goal of becoming a Hispanic-serving institution.
The 11-person council — which features leaders in business and community advocacy, including seven alumni — will advise, counsel and support NJIT’s drive to increase its percentage of Hispanic and Latinx undergraduates from 20% to 25% by 2025 and thereby qualify to earn the federal designation of being Hispanic-serving. In addition, the HLLC will seek to deepen relationships with Hispanic and Latinx alumni, businesses and organizations.
Council members will further serve as ambassadors and advocates for NJIT, mentor STEM-oriented Hispanic and Latinx students in high schools and community colleges as an introduction to the university and help secure gifts and grants to aid enrollment and engagement efforts.
“Given the socially and economically transformative impact of pursuing and completing a STEM-focused college degree, enrolling more Hispanic and Latinx students at NJIT will help our state and nation address long-standing social and economic inequalities,” said Joel S. Bloom, president of NJIT. “A failure to do so will portend higher Hispanic and Latinx unemployment rates, lower income and buying power, and a missed opportunity to benefit from the talent and potential of this significant segment of our society.”
Alumni on the council include Robert Medina ’75, principal of Medina 43 Business Strategies; Olga Garcia ’04 MS ’05, senior engineer at Bright View Engineering and city engineer for Hoboken; Emilio Sanchez ’94, senior director of business development at Stryker; and Elisa Charters ’92 MS ’93, principal at EAC Business International and president of Latina Surge International.
Charters sees the HLLC as a means to create mentorship and sponsorship opportunities, in particular. She joined because of her personal connection to NJIT, where she became the first person in her family to attend college, with support from the university’s Educational Opportunity Program.
“The council is a testament to the leadership of President Bloom, Provost [Fadi] Deek and the Board of Trustees. Together, we are taking actionable steps toward inclusion,” said Charters, who also serves on the Board of Advisors for NJIT’s Martin Tuchman School of Management. “NJIT is further developing its diversity, equity and inclusion competitive advantage by actively implementing this new council and its goals toward social justice, inclusion and belonging.”
Like Charters, Medina is passionate about his alma mater and already gives back, as a member of the Board of Overseers. As a council member, he’s confident that NJIT will realize its 25% representation goal, which will make it a Hispanic-serving school eligible for additional federal and state aid for students. So, the challenge, as Medina sees it, is, “How can we be proactive and develop a program that not only gets over that goal but also is a planned program?”
What’s more, Medina, who also was a first-generation college student, would like to add a student to the council — an idea that Charters supports.
The other HLLC members are
Roly Acosta, president and CEO of JAG Companies
Indhira Figuereo, vice president at WSP USA
Francisco Cortes, CEO and chairman of The Setroc Group and president of the New Jersey State Veterans Chamber of Commerce
Angelica Ogando ’02 MBA ’11, founder and CEO of The Enriched Mind
Luis De La Hoz, chairman of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey and first vice president, director of community lending at Valley Bank
Alvaro Piedrahita ’73, chairman of T.Y. Lin International Group
Francisco Ruela ’92, president and principal of SYSTRA A+E
The HLLC arrives amid several NJIT initiatives designed to heighten diversity and the visibility of historically underserved minorities on campus. The university’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force is leading a groundbreaking and comprehensive survey of the campus community to develop a long-term diversity and inclusion action plan. At the same time, NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design is moving to revive its chapter in the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students. The university already has active chapters of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and National Society of Black Engineers as well as Latin American Student Organization.
The initiatives and council represent concrete steps toward realizing a guiding principle of NJIT’s 2025 strategic plan, namely, to achieve diversity across all of the university’s five priorities: students, faculty, research, resources and prominence. As the plan states, “We will create a welcoming and inclusive campus environment by developing a diverse community of students, faculty, staff and administrators; ensuring an affordable education; nurturing connections with alumni; actively engaging with the Newark community; and connecting with national and international business communities.” The HLLC aims to do all that, and more.
About New Jersey Institute of Technology
One of only 32 polytechnic universities in the United States, NJIT prepares students to become leaders in the technology-dependent economy of the 21st century. NJIT’s multidisciplinary curriculum and computing-intensive approach to education provide technological proficiency, business acumen and leadership skills. NJIT is one of only 131 universities rated an “R1” research university by the Carnegie Classification®, which indicates the highest level of research activity. NJIT conducts more than $160 million in research activity each year and has a $2.8 billion annual economic impact on the State of New Jersey. NJIT is ranked No. 1 nationally by Forbes for the upward economic mobility of its lowest-income students and is ranked in the top 100 colleges and universities nationally for the mid-career earnings of graduates, according to PayScale.com. NJIT also is ranked third in New Jersey and 74th among colleges and universities nationwide by the QS World University Ranking® 2020.
