Black Girls Code Founder Speaks At NJIT Commencement In Newark

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New Jersey Institute of Technology graduated more than 3,000 students, with Kimberly Bryant, founder and CEO of Black Girls Code, delivering the commencement address.

Black Girls Code is a non-profit organization teaching computer science skills to Black females ages 7-11 and emphasizing entrepreneurship.

Bryant, who studied electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University and received an honorary Doctorate of Science from NJIT, told students that as predominantly STEM graduates, they're uniquely equipped to surmount challenges which will be greater than anything they encountered in college. She urged them to use their power to help mend economic and opportunity gaps between people of means and those without, which continue to grow and especially leaves women and minorities behind.

"I want to suggest that while the challenges that still lie ahead of us are daunting, I believe your generation has everything it needs to lead the way to a better, brighter and more equitable future for all of us," she said. "The world that stands before us today looks quite different than the one that faced your peers this time last year and certainly in years before. Many of you like our girls at Black Girls Code have spent the last year learning how to navigate learning in a digital environment while watching the world fight a devastating disease and businesses and social structures collapse all around us. Change is always hard even under the best circumstances but doubly so when in the face of crisis. But we as engineers were built to solve problems, and now is the perfect time to put your creative skills for innovation and your leadership tools to use. As the former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt stated, 'With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.'"

"As engineers, technologists and innovators I believe you are uniquely gifted," Bryant added. "You are the architects of the future. These talents to create and build are a gift. And yet they are also a privilege which endows you with a span of impact which extends well beyond your immediate circle of influence. I ask how will you use this next level agency? When you are building new systems, will you ask if those systems will be accessible to and useful for or detrimental to disenfranchised communities? Will you use your skills and your agency to build things that empower others to own their power and their voices? As engineers and leaders, how will you do what is right when the pressure is on to follow the herd or obey an authority figure who has gone off course? I know you will find a way – the best leaders always do."

NJIT President Joel S. Bloom led the online ceremony, which included recordings of in-person activities last week. Bloom told graduates that their journey has been uniquely challenging, as they faced a “mountain of unknowns” in an ever-changing landscape with circumstances unimaginable just a few years ago. "What you have accomplished did not come easily, and that should instill in you a sense of pride and a measure of confidence that will fortify you in your life’s pursuits. You will carry forward a resolute belief that, when obstacles are thrown in your way, you will overcome them, because that is exactly what this class has done to reach this milestone," he said.

"We made it through an incredible journey these past few years, and especially, especially over the past year," said Anuj Patel, Student Senate president, who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and was a member of Albert Dorman Honors College. Soon, he will start as a continuous improvement engineer at President Container Group in Middletown, N.Y.

The last few years saw difficult news that was very serious, such as civil rights abuses and presidential impeachment, but there was also good news, added Patel, whose family lives outside Toronto. "Africa was declared polio free, air pollution dropped significantly and species repopulated, we landed another rover and flew a drone on another planet, the world came together to develop a vaccine in one year that would normally take 10-plus years," he said. And on a humorous note, he added, "Of course the largest accomplishment [was] NJIT professors learned to use Webex.

"Despite most of us remembering 2020 as the year of COVID-19, a time where we all sat at home miserable with no interactions with those we care about, 2020 and 2021 should be remembered as proof of the value of human life and the strength of humankind to triumph."

The graduate student speaker was Ogochukwu Enekwizu, who completed her Ph.D. in chemical engineering in December 2020. "Life does not travel only on a straight line, there will always be twists and turns," she said, reflecting on the pandemic. "When I began the Ph.D. program, I would never have imagined an ending like this. 2020 started with a lot of promise and then COVID happened, and 365 days felt like 3,065 days. Like many of you here, I hoped for the best, cried, prayed, worked hard, lost hope, rediscovered it and repeated the cycle more times than I could count."

Like running in a marathon without a defined route, "we have all had to dig deep and keep going when we’d rather quit," Enekwizu added. "We have all expended a lot of sweat, tears and great sacrifice to arrive at this point in our career and lives."

Honorary degrees were also conferred on the Rev. Edwin Leahy O.S.B., headmaster of St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, and Lawrence A. Raia '65, a partner at Raia Properties and a member of the NJIT Board of Trustees since 2012.

"It is a great honor to receive this award from the school that has given me so much," Raia said. "Congratulations to the Class of 2021. You are the brightest of the bright and have worked hard to get to this place. That is the good news. The better news is you are just warming up."

In interviews, the new graduates excitedly shared their plans.

Nicholas Rubulotta, of Toms River, who studied chemical engineering, is moving to Wisconsin for a job as a process supervisor. David Bushira, a mechanical engineering major who lives in Elizabeth, is heading to Michigan to work for General Motors. Youstina Saroufim, who's from Africa, is becoming a civil engineer at NJIT after transferring from Drexel University. She is also finishing an M.S. at NJIT next fall, in construction and engineering management.

More than two dozen students received the NJIT Presidential Medal for graduating with a 4.0 grade-point average. In addition, NJIT recognized two students, JingJing Yao and Haitao Yuan, with the annual Hashimoto prize for the best doctoral dissertation. That prize goes to students in electrical and computer engineering. It's named in honor of inventor Kazuo Hashimoto, who earned more than 1,000 patents related to telecommunications including the telephone answering machine.

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