Proyecto Science Closing Ceremony Celebrates Young STEM Scholars

New Jersey City University (NJCU) held its closing ceremonies for the Proyecto Science Program today at the Margaret Williams Theatre at NJCU’s Main Campus. 

Proyecto Science is a summer enrichment program designed to prepare middle school and high school students for careers in mathematics, sciences, and engineering. This six-week program is hosted at New Jersey City University and East Hanover and offers a wide range of STEM courses including computer science, physics, biology, and mathematics. Students enrolled in the program complete a summer coursework over a period of three years and have the opportunity to develop and strengthen strong critical thinking, analytical skills, quantitative literacy, and lifelong learning.

Proyecto Science was created in 1997 to encourage and support economically disadvantaged and minority middle and high school students from the surrounding community to succeed in the sciences. This program then called Proyecto Access, started with 45 students and has been growing since then, now serving more than 200 students each summer.

Students enrolled in the program are from participating school districts including Bayonne Public School, Jersey City Public Schools, Explorer 2000 Middle School of Hudson County School of Technology and a second site in East Hanover, NJ. This year more than 250 students have completed the summer program and will be celebrating their accomplishment at the closing ceremony which took place on August 8, 2019 at the Margaret William Theatre in Hepburn Hall.

New Jersey City University President Sue Henderson, Senior Vice President and Provost Tamara Jhashi, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, a benefactor of the program for many years, joined parents, faculty, staff, and representatives from participating school districts to celebrate and honor the students’ achievements.

The director of the Proyecto Science Program and Assistant Professor, Biology at NJCU, Dr. Meriem Bendaoud stated, “This culminating event is a reminder that our community is growing stronger as we are all working together to ensure the future success of our children. New Jersey City University would not have been able to provide and sustain this most needed program without the combined support of parents, partners’ school districts, and the generous donations from Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and the Jersey City Board of Education. We will grow stronger together.”