Preaching patience, courage and resilience, MGM Construction Co. President and CEO Marjorie Perry urged the Class of 2024 at New Jersey Institute of Technology to become lifelong learners as they apply their imagination to real-world challenges.

Perry, an NJIT alumna who serves on its Foundation Board of Directors, called on the undergraduates earning bachelor’s degrees to be “agents of change in our communities” and build a future “that we can all be proud of.”

Here, we conclude a two-part series in which winners of the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award at this year’s College of Science and Liberal Arts Awards share memorable experiences that highlighted their path to success at NJIT, while they also look ahead to plans after Commencement 2024.

Isaiah Rejouis, B.A. Biology

A special group of NJIT’s graduating seniors is finishing undergraduate life with a flourish — their achievements across the humanities and STEM sciences recently earned them the Outstanding Student Award at the College of Science and Liberal Arts Awards this month.

In the first of a two-part series, we catch up with this year’s winners who share their successes and memorable moments at NJIT, as well as exciting plans following Commencement 2024.

Speaker after speaker reinforced what Kevin Belfield, dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts at New Jersey Institute of Technology, said about the university’s Math Success Initiative: “It takes a village to put a program like this together.”

The speakers were at a campus ceremony celebrating the first students to experience MSI and graduate from NJIT: Okyere Boateng, Brian Herrera-Calle, Catherine Ochoa and Steff Pitti.

While excitement builds toward Commencement 2024, celebrations have already begun at NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA), which recently hosted its annual awards ceremony honoring distinguished alumni, faculty, students and staff.

NJIT’s annual celebration of its top student researchers kicked off at the 2024 Dana Knox Student Research Showcase, which once again highlighted a stunning array of innovation and discovery from every corner of the STEM disciplines.

Now in its 19th year, the showcase competition featured 68 diverse research projects presented by students from NJIT’s six colleges at the university Campus Center.

A group of film students and faculty from the NJIT-Rutgers Theatre Arts Program have taken creative inspiration from the cinematic universe of N.J.-born filmmaker Kevin Smith, and it’s earned them recognition from the iconic writer/director himself.

A research team from New Jersey Institute of Technology is uncovering mysteries surrounding fluids in nanoporous materials, and has been recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support this research.

NJIT’s undergraduate forensic science program has been awarded full accreditation from the Forensic Science Education Programs Accreditation Commission (FEPAC) of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences — a distinction held by less than 35 undergraduate forensics programs nationwide.

FEPAC is regarded as the main accrediting body for college-level forensic science education in the U.S., recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

What are the latest innovations around artificial intelligence, how will it change the way we work and what safeguards are needed to address systemic inequities?

Data scientists, policy experts and the head of a state commission will examine these issues and more at “Intelligent Uses of Artificial Intelligence: Making Technology Work for All of Us,” an upcoming conference from the Murray Center for Women in Technology at New Jersey Institute of Technology and the New Jersey Equity in Commercialization Collective.