YWCC Expands K–12 Computing and Math Outreach Across Newark
Technology for the greater good of society. That is a principal tenet of the NJIT mission, and one that is carried forward by the university’s Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC) and its many initiatives to increase education and opportunity for K-12 students in the city of Newark.
Several NJIT delegates joined city and state educators and politicians, along with a celebrity or two, at a recent Newark Board of Education partnership meeting, including YWCC Dean Jamie Payton, Chief of Public & Community Affairs Angela Garretson and B.S. in Information Technology student Delali Kumapley, who is also an Albert Dorman Honors Scholar.
"I’m proud of the work our faculty, staff and students are doing with Newark’s students to create ambitious and engaging learning experiences. When we bring young people together around computing and math, we create new opportunities for connection, collaboration and problem-solving skills that apply across disciplines,” said Payton.
Kumapley is working with Garretson on a 10-year plan to propel Newark further ahead as part of her independent study on policy and computing. “The city has come so far in transformation. Now we want to push it beyond trash clean-ups to explore the full value of what NJIT has to offer in the way of education, partnerships and resources.”
Colin Kaepernick, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and now a tech entrepreneur, was a featured guest at the meeting. He presented his platform, Lumi AI, which leverages tools to create novels in comic book form based on plot lines, characters, contextual elements and historical details.
Kumapley sees Kaeprnick’s innovation as a valuable motivating factor for children by empowering the arts to intersect with tech as an early start to developing interest in STEM fields as a major and career path.
Since Payton began her tenure as dean at NJIT in fall 2024, she has sought to broaden student participation in computing through the Students and Technology for Academics, Research and Service (STARS) program, and views the work of YWCC faculty and administration as a catalyst for creating tomorrow’s tech workforce through opportunity and exposure at the primary and secondary education levels.
In addition to Associate Dean Brook Wu’s exploration of dual enrollment of computing courses at area high schools, along with on-site presentations and recruiting efforts by faculty members, Associate Professor Michael Lee oversees Newark Kids Code, a collaborative project between the university and the Urban League of Essex County. The National Science Foundation funded program is designed not just to teach coding skills to middle school youth but provides them with critical mentorship from role models they can relate to. The NJIT student instructors resemble the middle schoolers in relative age range and come from similar backgrounds or neighborhoods to make the path to college feel achievable.
Senior Lecturer Lin Lin, associate chair in the Department of Informatics, is part of a program to support preparing Newark School District students for the AMC 10/AMC 12, the preeminent high school mathematics competition in the United States.
The program, led by high school student Wesley Lin, who — serving as the outreach director of Logistem, a youth-led STEM organization — constructed a team of seven high school “mathletes” to offer Zoom-based AMC preparation sessions. Over seven weeks, Multiply Minds — named by Lin and his peers — met twice per week to explore problem-solving, strategies and the joy of mathematics.
Senior Lecturer Lin said, “I am incredibly proud to have supported this effort by helping manage logistics and ensuring each session ran smoothly. The project concluded on a high note on November 5, when 130 Newark students came to NJIT to take the AMC 10/12 exam, followed by a two-hour campus tour.”
As a result, three students are now highly likely to pass AMC 12 into American Invitational Math Examination, which is an honor only the top 7% of AMC 12 test-takers across the nation are able to achieve.
Lin sees the work he, NJIT and Multiply Minds are doing is vitally impacting Newark students, who deserve access to the same preparation, confidence and opportunities as students anywhere else.
“As a faculty member specializing in data mining and AI, I see firsthand how essential mathematics is to both computer science and artificial intelligence […] especially in an era where AI is reshaping the world. I hope to help more Newark students discover a genuine passion for math, not just as a subject in school, but as a foundation for problem-solving, creativity and opportunity.”