Each spring, NJIT’s Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts honors a select group of graduating seniors who stand out for achievement, leadership and service. 

As part of the 2026 HCSLA Awards, we’re spotlighting three Outstanding Student Award recipients — each with a unique story and big ambitions shaped at NJIT. 

NJIT’s Jordan Hu College of Science & Liberal Arts (HCSLA) celebrated 44 years on May 6 with its annual awards ceremony, headlined by a special guest appearance from paleontologist and famed “dinosaur hunter” Dr. Kenneth J. Lacovara.

Held in the Central King Building’s Agile Strategy Lab, the event brought together students, faculty, and alumni alongside President Teik C. Lim to recognize the past year’s achievements across NJIT’s most academically diverse college, from the humanities to STEM sciences.

For Naketa “KET-A” Williams ’26, artificial intelligence is not just about what systems like ChatGPT can do — it is about whose stories, languages and values they carry.

That idea will soon take Williams to Jamaica as a Fulbright recipient, where she will join a national initiative advancing culturally grounded AI development.

Greetings from New Jersey.

A state of political bosses who inspired HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Of eerie legends like the Jersey Devil and the 1916 Matawan shark attacks. Of shorelines, small towns and highways that became the backdrop for Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run.

Next fall, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) will become the place to study them all.

If you wanted to see how AI and research across the humanities and sciences are reshaping each other in real time, NJIT’s Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts (HCSLA) offered a front-row seat during the university’s first AI Exploration Day.

The all-day AI takeover of campus highlighted the college’s diverse faculty and student research — covering everything from what the future holds for ethical AI design and robotics, to the latest AI-assisted efforts to alert Earth of eruptions on the Sun.

This spring, NJIT students will have the opportunity to gain a richer picture of the complex history and politics of the Middle East that continue to shape today’s headlines, drive foreign policy debates and affect global stability.

A new course opening next semester, “Middle East Conflicts: State Building, Regional Tensions, Peace Processes,” will be taught by Doron Shultziner, an associate professor at Jerusalem Multidisciplinary College and visiting scholar in NJIT’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.