For Dina Ayman’s parents, the road to medical school beckoned enticingly to their gifted daughter, a driven student with a love for math and science. The profession, they argued, would eagerly welcome a woman of her talents. But Ayman ’18, M.S. ’18, did not hear that call. And she resisted.

When NJIT’s Center for Pre-College Programs held its annual closing ceremony for the Bernard Harris Summer STEM Camp (BHSSC) this past July, an unplanned reunion made the event all the more sweet. Damilola Ojoye ’18, a participant of the very first camp in 2007, was in attendance to witness the campers’ presentations, and wound up reconnecting with Bernard Harris, who was there as well.

Tony Howell’s office on the third floor of NJIT’s Campbell Hall is as much a retrospective of the past two decades of the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), of which he has been executive director since 1997, as it is a testament to the devotion of the man himself. Pictures of EOP students, many with Howell by their side, adorn the walls, and trinkets from the program line the window shelf along the back of the room.

Students who are the first in their family to pursue higher education or come from a low-income household continue to be severely underrepresented on college campuses, despite high educational aspirations.