Civic Engagement: A Good Neighbor

Civic Engagement at NJIT is an integral part of the university’s culture, harmonizing academic learning, personal development, and community benefit.  NJIT’s students, faculty, and staff are engaged in our local community, statewide, and globally for the preparation of our graduates not only as professionals but also as citizens.  The civically-engaged institution must be committed to direct interaction with its constituencies in the community and civic sector through the mutually beneficial exchange, exploration, and application of knowledge, expertise, and information.    In the last year over 3, 000 NJIT students contributed more than 52, 000 hours of service to 260 non-profits in the greater Newark, NJ area and beyond.

Of note, months of planning gave birth to the Newark Beautification Initiative (NBI) and the (Mayor) Ras Baraka Coding Institute (RBCI) a partnership between NJIT and the City of Newark.

The goal of the partnership is to provide young people from Newark ages 16 – 19 with employment, technology, education, and enrichment opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).   The inaugural Newark Beautification Initiative involved the design, construction, and planting of four community gardens in four wards of the city.   The Ras Baraka Coding Institute provided students access to four exciting real world project tracks of coding experience and ended with a showcase.   Both initiatives are a collaboration of Career Development Services, College of Architecture & Design, and the College of Computing Sciences.

Now in its second year, the Beautification initiative relates to the remediation and environmental preservation of an existing property within the Science Park region of Newark, NJ.    The participants are engaged in the visioning and planning of maximizing space to impact community.   The curriculum includes classroom, laboratory and outdoor on-site experiences leading to the participant’s increased knowledge and appreciation of environmentally healthy and aesthetically improved urban neighborhoods.   Moreover, the program participant’s work will lead to immediate improvements to the identified outdoor site.  The curriculum contains components of environmental and ecology, landscape improvement design, and project planning and process management.  Similarly, the Coding Institute will introduce its participants to computing sciences via Web Development and 3D Design concepts.  Students will utilize web technologies such as JavaScript to code 3D figures to build materials that will be used to demonstrate the areas of STEM.

The much-anticipated initiative has brought over 200 Newark students participating in the Newark Summer Youth Employment and Training Program to the NJIT campus during the last two summers.  New Jersey Institute of Technology is the state's science and technology research university, engaged in the pursuit of excellence within its urban Newark environment, the state of New Jersey, and beyond.  For more information about Community and Public Service and civic engagement at NJIT view our video  http://youtu.be/HBTYtO_WAgw or contact us:  Vivian Lanzot, Director, Community and Public Service,

Career Services 973.596.3642, [email protected]