Senior Success: Darius Singletary Answers Call of Duty at NJIT

It isn't an easy balance between working and going to school — especially for students determined to excel in the challenging studies they take on at NJIT.  

But even considering the double-life that many students endure to help pay their way while earning their coveted degree, Darius Singletary has gone beyond the call of duty in his five years at NJIT.

By day, Singletary has been a hard-working college student in the Law, Technology and Culture (LTC) program at NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts, about to graduate this spring. 

By night, he’s a full-time active police officer for the town he grew up in, with the Rahway Police Department. And as one might imagine, his job keeping the streets safe at night can be taxing on its own, never mind navigating course schedules and tackling exams each day throughout each semester. His schedule is nonstop most of the time.

“I am a patrolman, and my job is to answer calls for service … I work midnights, so usually when I get home from work I will sleep for a few hours and get ready for school and rush back home and sleep for a few and head to work,” said Singletary. “NJIT is a rigorous school and my work schedule is rigorous, so it can be hard to balance but having a degree from NJIT will make it worth it.”

Not all officers that complete the civil service exam after earning their high school degree — core requirements for entry into police academy training — will share the academic background in law that Singletary is about to walk away with this May. Singletary says he wanted to do whatever he could do to improve himself as an officer of the law and better protect and serve his community. 

He saw the LTC program — which covers coursework in everything from “Constitutional Issues in Criminal Justice” to “Digital Crime” — as a way to do that. 

“I really focused on the criminal justice side of the LTC program,” said Singletary. “I was attracted to the program because I already was interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement, and I knew having a background in law would help.”

Despite his grueling schedule, Singletary has made the dean's list twice, including this past fall semester while working and being a student full time. Amid hitting the books in NJIT red, and his commitments after sundown in uniform blue, he also somehow found time to become a successful student-athlete as a member of the NJIT bowling team.

Of course, Singletary’s uncommon path has had adversity, including needing to take a year away from his academic coursework to complete police academy training.  

But most of all, he says that one of his biggest takeaways from NJIT will be the relationships he built up on campus that helped him through a time of personal tragedy. Without them, he says the journey wouldn’t have been possible.

“One of my biggest takeaways from NJIT is, it is important to communicate with people and build positive relationships,” said Singletary. “My dad passed away at the end of my fall '17 semester and I had to finish the semester and the following semester was difficult for me. I spoke with all of my professors regarding my situation and they were very patient with me and helped me through a difficult time. If I never would have communicated, my NJIT experience would have been a lot different, and possibly ended on a negative note.”

Instead, Singletary is now ready to rise through the ranks and believes that the same determination he used to get his new academic credentials, along with his love for the job, will help get him to the top.

“My future plans are to continue to be a police officer and climb the ranks to one day become the chief of police,” said Singletary. “And at NJIT, I learned when you put in hard work and sacrifice, you will see your goals achieved.”