Dorman students Lorianne Jones, Abayomi Soyeju, Maria Karim and Miao Li, left to right, and Dr Joel Bloom, dean, back row left, talk about the school with Sanford Ashley, Diversity/Careers’ associate publisher, front center.

For almost a decade, the Albert Dorman Honors College (ADHC) of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT, Newark, NJ) has supported talented students both academically and financially.

ADHC is a college within a college. Its students have access to honors scholarships. They take academic courses and seminars designed to enrich their academic experiences and build their research and leadership skills.

The courses and seminars supplement students’ studies in NJIT’s other colleges and majors – engineering, computer science, architecture and more. Recent honors college grads have gone on to good jobs in high tech and finance, as well as to grad studies in engineering, law and medicine.

The Albert Dorman Honors College grew out of an honors program that started at NJIT in 1985. The program acquired its current shape in 1993 after it received an endowment from Albert Dorman, PE, a 1945 ME grad of the Newark College of Engineering, NJIT’s predecessor.

Dorman went on to earn an MSCE at the University of Southern California and was the founder of Aecom Technology Corp (Los Angeles, CA), a technical professional services firm that now does infrastructure, environmental and facilities work around the world.

Dr Joel Bloom became the first ADHC dean in 1997. Since then the college’s programs have been expanded and refined. It now offers its students high-level faculty advisors, additional scholarship support, special housing with other honors students, and exclusive use of an honors lounge and computer lab.

There’s also an extensive program of honors seminars and colloquia conducted by NJIT faculty and outside technical and business people. Topics have ranged from “energy issues for the 21st century” to the plays of Henrik Ibsen.

Heavily technical
Almost 14 percent of NJIT’s undergraduate students are part of ADHC. Of the 510 students enrolled in its programs in the fall of 2002, 49 percent were engineering majors in NJIT’s College of Engineering, 24 percent were in the College of Computing Sciences, and another 16 percent were in the College of Architecture.

Sorting by diversity, 27 percent of the fall 2002 students were women and 11 percent were African American or Hispanic – percentages that have held up since 1999. “We think about diversity a lot,” Bloom says.

The honors college’s industrial advisory board includes technical managers and engineers at Xerox, Montgomery Watson Harza, Schering-Plough, Union Carbide, Forbes and others. Delon Hampton, PE, a past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, is also a board member.

Educational opportunity
The push for diversity is supported by NJIT’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) for educationally and financially disadvantaged students. When EOP students look promising but don’t quite meet the stringent SAT and GPA standards for honors college admission, they’re offered the chance to take one honors course their first year. If they do well enough, they may become full-fledged ADHC students.

“We’re looking for talented students who don’t have all the numbers,” Bloom explains. Twenty-four of the current ADHC students came to the school through the EOP.

Maria Karim.

What they like
“I love the competition, and I like the interaction with the other honors students,” says Maria Karim, a sophomore in computer engineering and applied math. “The colloquium series brings us speakers from the real world and gives us networking opportunities too.”

Abayomi Soyeju.

“We get a lot of opportunity to work in teams, and I know that will be important for any job,” notes Abayomi Soyeju, a senior with a major in computer engineering and a minor in statistics and management.

Lorianne Jones.

Lorianne Jones started her sophomore year as an architecture major in the fall of 2002. “I’ve been able to do special projects,” she says. “I’ve had more access to computers, so I’ve been able to see how technology can help architects. My focus is now on the technology plus the art of architecture.”

Miao Li.

Miao Li, a senior majoring in computer science and applied math, says she was looking for small classes and a school where she “could get to know the professors.” “The campus feels like a big family,” Karim adds.

A base to build on
Participation in ADHC programs has opened up new possibilities for many students. “You need to understand that your major is a base to build on. You can’t close your mind to what is around you; you need that broad perspective,” Karim observes.

Li’s research project at a university-connected hospital has made her consider continuing on to grad school. Soyeju has realized that while he likes his technical courses, he “really enjoys people,” and might be happier in a job that combines technical work with marketing.

The honors college experience gives exceptional students a chance to expand their horizons. In addition to learning a lot, they make connections. They build their own networks with peers, faculty and outside experts that will help them move up quickly after they get out into the world.

“It’s a small school within a large one,” says Soyeju. “When you graduate you’re a known quantity."

D/C