New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has been awarded three Upward Bound grants by the U.S. Department of Education totaling $1,168,939 that will help pave the way for hundreds of Newark high school students to pursue a college degree.

Upward Bound — one of seven federal TRIO programs created by the Higher Education Act of 1965 — funds and supports higher education opportunities for students from low-income families, as well as those from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor's degree. 

When the staff at Malcolm X Shabazz High School decided to build a makerspace, which is a first for a Newark public school, they turned to New Jersey Institute of Technology for advice and training.

The school's science department chairman, Jackly Nazaire, would like to see engineers, mathematicians, programmers and scientists join the ranks of the school's notable alumni — such as singer Gloria Gaynor, singer Cissy Houston whose daughter was superstar Whitney Houston, former New York mayor Ed Koch and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus.

Alongside the wave of excitement at Commencement 2022, NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts recently decorated their star students at its annual awards ceremony.

Here, a diverse group of graduates who shared CSLA’s Outstanding Student Award look back on their NJIT journey and the successes they’ll take with them.

Three years in, NJIT’s Math Success Initiative continues to grow in participation and results.

Designed to prime Newark high school students for college, the summer-to-spring program attracted 29 students in 2021-22, up 26% from 2019-20, according to Levelle Burr-Alexander, director of special project at NJIT’s Center for Pre-College Programs, which co-administers MSI with the university’s College of Science and Liberal Arts. And within the current cohort, all but one of the participants earned acceptance into NJIT.

Neil Maher, NJIT master teacher and professor of history, has been named fellow for The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

The fellowship traditionally attracts outstanding scholars, writers and visual artists from around the world. Fellows collaborate and develop scholarly work over a nine-month term with access to the vast research collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

NJIT has landed some unexpected residents recently, and they’ll be getting plenty of “airtime” as they settle into their new home. In fact, they’ll have their own channel where you can check them (and their new crib) out, 24/7. 

Two red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) have begun a rare urban nest on a sixth-story ledge of the campus’s Albert Dorman Honors College (ADHC) Residence Hall on Colden Street. 

New Jersey Institute of Technology’s efforts to nurture and support businesses led by African-Americans are being recognized by a caucus of county commissioners.

The caucus, New Jersey Nineteen (NJ19), comprised of Black county commissioners, bestowed an African-American Business Champion Award to Joel S. Bloom, NJIT’s president since 2011.



Central to the university’s support for Black businesses is VentureLink, the business incubator housed under its New Jersey Innovation Institute. 

Two leaders at New Jersey Institute of Technology made NJBIZ’s list of the 2021 Education Power 50: President Joel S. Bloom and Simon Nynes, CEO of NJIT’s New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII).

The annual list recognizes the most impactful and influential educational leaders in New Jersey.  

It wasn’t more than a few months after she graduated with a biology degree in May of 2016 that NJIT alumna Pamela Carman swapped the university’s labs and lecture halls for a classroom all her own, just minutes from campus at Newark’s East Side High School. 

Since then, Carman has become the driving force behind an up-and-coming curriculum that is training the city’s high school seniors in the latest investigative techniques used by professional forensic scientists.

Already, she’s earned award-winning success along the way.

Three leaders at New Jersey Institute of Technology are featured in ROI-NJ’s annual recognition of education influencers, including President Joel S. Bloom, who was named Influencer of the Year.