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.

Danna Valentina Sanchez Hernandez '25 took a big leap leaving her home country of Colombia to pursue her undergrad studies in the U.S., but that journey is paying off at NJIT — her research exploring the fluid dynamics and locomotion of marine life has recently led to a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.

This year’s Goldwater class is comprised of just 438 scholars from across the U.S.

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.

It has been close to 50 years since Bob Medina ’75 graduated from NJIT as an engineer, and when he looks back at his journey, he marvels at how NJIT gave him the tools to excel. In fact, he still has the slide rule he used in class, in the days before calculators were allowed and laptops existed.